BRIEF NOTICES 



OF 



HAYTI 



WITH ITS 



CONDITION, RESOURCES, AND PROSPECTS. 



BY 



JOHN CANDLER, 
it 




LONDON : 

THOMAS WARD & CO., 27, PATERNOSTER ROW : 

AND 

CHARLES GILPIN, 5, BISHOPSGATE STREET WITHOUT, 



1842. 






LONDON : 

JOHNSTON AND BARRETT, PRINTERS, 
13, MARK LANE. 






# 



tf 



£> 



INTRODUCTION. 



... & 

In bringing before the public a view of the present 
state of Hayti, it seemed desirable to prefix to the 
narrative, a brief sketch of the history of the island. 
The Author had intended to prepare such a sketch; 
but upon examining those works, both French and 
English, which are considered as authorities, he 
found so many discrepancies and counter state- 
ments, involving the character of several of the 
leaders in the late revolution, that he abandoned 
the attempt in despair. The history of Hayti has 
yet to be written, nor can it be written impartially, 
so as to establish the truth, and the whole truth, 
till the present generation shall have passed away. 
The literary public of France and England may 
yet look for an accession of historical materials, 
that will throw great light on the late contests 
between the free and the servile classes, and between 
the whites and the men of colour. The present 
Secretary of State for Hayti, General Inginac, who 
is now advanced in age, and who was engaged in 
the wars of the revolution, almost from his boy- 
hood, has prepared a narrative of the passing events 
of the period, both civil and military, whiph is 
intended for publication at his decease. This nar- 

a 2 



IV INTRODUCTION. 

rative, when published, will, no doubt, illustrate 
many circumstances that are now obscure, and 
serve to unfold more clearly the character and 
motives of some remarkable men, his contempora- 
ries. It is the delight of the lovers of liberty to 
dwell with enthusiasm on the talents and exploits 
of Toussaint V Ouverture, undoubtedly the greatest 
man that took part in the revolution of St. 
Domingo, and one of the ablest Generals of his 
age ; but it is very doubtful- whether his character, 
as a leader in the great struggle, will come out 
of the crucible of impartial history, with all that 
brightness and purity that some modern narratives, 
half history, half romance, seem to assign to it. 
The opinion of many persons in Hayti, wdiether 
well or ill-founcled, we stop not to inquire, is cer- 
tainly adverse to such high pretensions : these 
individuals represent Toussaint as one of the best 
men of his clay ; but not as free from many of 
the blemishes which generally attach to w T arriors. 
The lines of Pope are become an axiom, and are 
often quoted as decisive with regard to men who 
are en^ao'ed in the dismal work of slau°;hterino; 
their fellows : 

" All heroes are alike : the points agreed ; 
From Macedonia's madman to the Swede/' 

and it is remarkable to observe, as a confirmation 
of the poet's doctrine, which is true to a certain 
extent, that the character of Hannibal as penned 



INTRODUCTION. . V 

bv the severe and vigorous hand of Juvenal, 
has been accommodated by Dr. Johnson in his 
" Vanity of Human Wishes/' to represent the 
life and exploits of Charles the Twelfth ; and that 
the portrait drawn of the latter, might, with the 
omission of a line or two, and the change of half a 
dozen words, be made literally to apply to Xapoleon 
Buonaparte. If there be any exception to the truth 
of Pope's apothegm in modern days, that exception 
may undoubtedly be made in favour of Washington 
and Toussaint. But those great men who act in 
a public contest, where the passions of a whole 
people are stirred up and roused into revengeful 
activity, however mild they may be by nature, and 
however disposed to act with mercy, often contract 
the stains that attach to the party they embrace, 
or the cause in which they embark, and exhibit in 
their conduct more than a common frailty. The 
civil wars of Hayti are now ended ; and happy 
would it be for humanity's sake, if we could draw 
the curtain of night on the many dark transactions 
that disgraced the period of their progress ! The 
people of that country, however, have learned from 
them an awful lesson ; and this one good con- 
sequence has resulted, that the Republic, weary of 
contending with the sword, is now desirous of 
keeping it sheathed in the scabbard, and of main- 
taining an honourable and lasting peace. 

The author of the following " brief notices" 
declines the task of an historian ; but if his pages, 



VI INTRODUCTION. 

which are intended to exhibit the present state of 
Hayti, with its resources and prospects, should 
afford amusement or instruction, in any degree, to 
those who read them, his end will be fully answered, 
and he will receive all the reward he desires or 
looks for. 

York, Third Month, 1842. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

HAYTI, ITS GEOGRAPHY 



CHAPTER II. 

OUTWARD BOUND SHORES OF HAYTI— JAMAICA — ABOLITION 

OF SLAVERY IN THE WEST INDIES 



CHAPTER III. 

RETURN TO HAYTI SANTIAGO DE CUBA — TOWN OF CAPE 

HAYTIEN PLANTATIONS IN THE PLAINE DU NORD — EXCUR- 
SION TO SANS SOUCI CHRISTOPHE — GENERAL OBSERVA- 
TIONS t J 2 



CHAPTER IV. 

DEPARTURE FROM CAPE HAYTIEN — JOURNEY TO GONAIVES 

TOWN AND COMMERCE OF GONAIVES — COASTING VOYAGE TO 
PORT-AU-PRINCE , . . . 47 



CHAPTER V. 

CITY OF PORT-AU-PRINCE — THE ABBE D'ECHEVERRIA 

SCHOOLS — PRISON JURISPRUDENCE — INTERVIEW WITH 

THE PRESIDENT 69 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER VI. 

CONSTITUTION OF HAYTI CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT ARMY — 

COMMERCE FINANCE — EMPLOYMENTS AND CONDITION OF 

THE PEOPLE ESTIMATE OF THE POPULATION 86 

CHAPTER VII. 

CARNIVAL AT PORT-AU-PRINCE — VISIT TO THE CUL DE SAC 

SUGAR PLANTATIONS — DISTILLERIES CONSUMPTION OF 

ARDENT SPIRITS JOURNEY TO LE GRAND FOND — JOURNEY 

BY LEOGANE OVER THE MOUNTAIN TO JACMEL RETURN TO 

THE CAPITAL 134 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE FINE ARTS — PHYSIOGNOMY OF THE NATIVES INEFFI- 
CIENCY OF THE CITY POLICE — DEPARTURE FROM HAYTI 

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS 162 



HAYTL 



CHAPTER I. 

HAYTI, ITS GEOGRAPHY. 

The island of Hayti, formerly Hispaniola or St. 
Domingo, placed between the 18th and 20th degrees of 
north latitude, and from 68 to 75 degrees west, has a 
length of 360 miles from east to west, and a breadth, 
varying from 60 to 120 miles. Its circumference mea- 
sured by an even line, excluding the bays, is nearly 
a thousand miles. This island so important for its 
situation and great natural advantages, is four times 
as large as Jamaica, and nearly equal in extent to 
Ireland. It is situated at the entrance of the Gulf 
of Mexico : is one of the four larger Antilles, and holds 
the second rank after Cuba, from which it is distant 
only twenty leagues. Jamaica lies westward of it 
about forty leagues; and Porto Rico, a large and now 
populous island belonging to Spain, twenty-two leagues 
eastward. On the north are the Bahama islands, at a 
distance of two or three days' sail; and southward, 
separated by 700 miles of ocean, is the great continent 
of South America. 



Z GEOGRAPHY OF HAYTI. 

The principal islands adjacent to Hayti and belonging 
to it, are Gonave, La Saone, Isle de Vaches, and Tortue, 
all of considerable extent ; but all through the policy of 
the government uncultivated. Hayti presents the aspect 
of a large territory composed of mountains and plains, 
watered by a few extensive unnavigable rivers and in- 
numerable streams : it abounds in forests of mahogany 
wood and other fine timber — affords a great variety of 
climate ; and, displays a grandeur and beauty of natural 
scenery, not surpassed in the tropical regions of the New 
World, or perhaps of the globe itself. 

Like all the other islands of this region, it is subject 
to awful tempests, known by their Indian name of 
hurricanes, and is liable to frequent shocks of earth- 
quake. The latter formidable phenomenon in 1564, 
destroyed the newly founded city of Concepeion de la 
Vega, and has occasioned at several different and dis- 
tant periods, the overthrow or disturbance of Port-au- 
Prince, its present capital. A line of demarcation, in 
some places artificially drawn, formerly separated the 
Spanish part of the island from the French ; but there 
is now no political distinction of territory, the whole 
country being united under one political head subject to 
the same laws. The ancient part of the island where 
the Spanish language is still spoken, embraces more than 
two-thirds of the soil, and contains only one-sixth of 
the inhabitants. The population of the Spanish part is 
estimated at a hundred and thirty thousand ; of the 
French part, nearly seven hundred thousand. The 
French or western territory, is the only part of the 
island that has numerous towns and villages, and it is 
here principally, that commerce carries on its exchanges 
with other nations. A large quantity of mahogany 



GEOGRAPHY OF HAYTI. 



wood is exported from Santa Domingo, and a good deal 
of tobacco from Santiago and Port au Platte, all towns 
once belonging to the Spaniards, and still Spanish as to 
language and the customs of the people ; but the great 
staples of coffee, cotton, mahogany, and dye-wood, are 
collected on the French side and shipped from Cape 
Haytien, Port-au-Prince, Cayes, Gonaives and Jacmel. 
The mountains of Hayti are many of them of great 
height. The principal range, is that of Cibao, near the 
centre of the island, from which other chains of hills 
diverge in different directions. The peak of Cibao is 
7200 feet above the level of the sea. The mountains 
bearing the name of La Selle, Le Mexique, and Le 
Maniel, are parts of the same range terminating on the 
southern coast. La Selle has an elevation of 7000 feet, 
and bears south-west of Port-au-Prince, at a distance of 
forty miles. The La Hotte mountains rise in the 
neighbourhood of Cayes, some of which are said to be 
as high as those of La Selle and Cibao. Besides these, 
there are the mountains of Monte Christo running from 
the north of the island eastward to the Peninsula of 
Samana, from the summits of which, Columbus gazed 
with astonishment at the extent and fertility of the 
plains below, since that period deprived by death and 
massacre of its original inhabitants, and now known by 
the expressive name of la despoblada or the unpeopled. 
The other ranges are those of Cahos and Los Muertos, 
which are rather hills than high mountains, having a 
mean elevation of about 2500 feet. " This configura- 
tion," says Moreau de St. Mery, u and the height of 
the mountains is the cause why, notwithstanding the 
great extent of many of its plains, the island when 
viewed from seaboard appears mountainous altogether, 
b2 



4 GEOGRAPHY OF BAYTI. 

and that its aspect is so forbidding. But the observer," 
he continues, " who contemplates these vast chains and 
all the branches that diverge from them, and pursues 
their various ramifications over the surface of the island, 
will see at once the cause of its fertility : they form an 
immense reservoir for the waters which are distributed to 
the soil by rivers without number : they temper the 
heat of a burning sun, arrest the fury of the winds, 
and multiply the resources of human industry to an 
astonishing extent." 

The- most spacious of the plains, is that of Vega 
eal, which traverses several of the northern depart- 
ments : its length is 220 miles : it is exceedingly fertile 
and well watered. Its chief produce, is tobacco of an 
xcellent quality : it grows also sugar and cocoa, and 
affords pasturage to large herds of cattle ; but owing to 
its present sparse population, yields comparatively little 
of food or agreeable luxuries to the wants of man. The 
noble rivers Yague and Youna which traverse its whole 
extent, will serve greatly to facilitate the transit of its 
produce, whenever a large and active body of settlers 
may devote themselves to the cultivation of its soil. 
This plain alone might well support its million of inha- 
bitants. That of Santa Domingo is the next in import- 
ance, and has very few people upon it, although from its 
fertility and extent of surface — 700 square leagues — 
it would yield, if cultivated, an immensity of produce. 
The plain of Azua has a surface of 150 square 
leagues, and that of Neybe eighty square leagues. Of 
the remaining plains, it is only needful to mention, 
La plaine du Nord, near Cape Haytien, and Le cul 
de sac, near Port au Prince, in both of which, 
sugar was formerly cultivated to a great extent, and 



GEOGRAPHY OF HAYTI. D 

where a laro;e number of sugar works and distilleries 
are still in operation to furnish syrup and rum for the 
home market. 

The principal rivers are the Yague and Youna before 
mentioned and the Arfcibonite, whose entire course is 
160 miles long in almost a direct line, and which, dur- 
ing the time of its floods, floats on its bosom to the sea, 
those vast logs of mahogany that find so ready a sale in 
the markets of Europe, under the name of Spanish 
mahogany. 

Hayti has some lakes of considerable size, where 
alligators abound : it is rich also in mineral springs, and 
is believed to possess vast treasures of iron and copper 
ores, together with gold and silver. The mines that 
contain the precious metals have long since been aban- 
doned for want of capital. 

Such in its physical structure, is one of the islands 
we proposed to visit on our leaving home in 1839, for 
a Yovao'e to the West Indies. 



OUTWARD BOUND. 



CHAPTER II. 

OUTWARD BOUND — SHORES OF HAYTI JAMAICA— ABO- 
LITION OF SLAVERY IN THE WEST INDIES. 

In the latter part of the year 1839, I left home, 
accompanied by my wife, on a missionary tour to 
Jamaica. After stopping by the way at Barbados^ 
Martinique, Tortola, St. Thomas, and Porto Rico, our 
vessel the Hecla steamer made for the windward 
passage, and coasted the northern shores of Hayti. 
The bold outlines of the mountains, which in many 
places approached to within twenty miles of the shore, 
and the numerous stupendous cliffs which beetled over 
it, casting their shadows to a great distance on the 
deep — the dark retreating bays, particularly that of 
Samana, and extensive plains opening inland between 
the lofty cloud covered hills, or running for uncounted 
leagues by the sea side, covered with trees and bushes, 
but affording no glimpse of a human habitation — pre- 
sented a picture of gloom and grandeur, calculated 
deeply to depress the mind ; such a picture as dense 
solitude unenlivened by a single trace of civilization, 
is ever apt to produce. Where, we inquired of our- 
selves, are the people of the country ? Where its culti- 
vation ? Are the ancient Indian possessors of the soil 
all extinct, and their cruel conquerors and successors 
entombed with them in a common grave ? For hun- 
dreds of miles as we swept along its shores, we saw 



OUTWARD BOUND. 7 

no living thing, but now and then a mariner in a 
solitary skiff, or birds of the land and ocean sailing in the 
air, as if to shew us that nature had not wholly lost its 
animation, and sunk into the sleep of death . Towards 
the north-west extremity of the island our course 
became a little enlivened : we entered the bay of Cape 
Haytien, formerly Cape Francois, since Cape Henry, 
and now, for brevity's sake, The Cape. The terrible 
fortress of La Ferriere, which commemorates the rule 
of Christophe, and which serves as a mausoleum for 
his remains, looked down upon us from a distant moun- 
tain; two forts commanded the entrance to the harbour, 
in which were numerous merchant vessels lying at 
anchor, taking in or discharging their cargoes ; and on 
our right hand, flanked by forest-crowned hills, rose the 
city itself, once denominated the little Paris — the hand- 
some city of the queen of the Antilles, Our stay was 
short: we landed for two hours, left the mail from 
Europe, spoke to the British Vice-Consul, visited the 
markets, conversed with a few of the black citizens, 
and again set sail. Before we had passed through 
the narrow strait that separates Tortue (the Turtle 
island) from the main-land, we were gratified with 
a distant view of the town of Port de Paix, rising 
in amphitheatre on the hills, illumined by the rays 
of the setting sun. Soon after we headed the Cape 
St. Nicholas Mole; and the following day landed 
at Santiago, the eastern capital of Cuba. Here as at 
Cape Haytien our stay was limited to the time allowed 
for post-office business ; the next day we reached King- 
ston in Jamaica. It is not the object of this little 
volume to detail the incidents of our travels in Jamaica, 
an island so often visited and so well known ; but we 



8 JAMAICA, 

cannot, in connexion with it, avoid a brief notice of 
that memorable event which has done so much to 
change the condition of its people, and seems fraught 
with such inestimable blessings to posterity. Here we 
trace the interesting spectacle of a colony, once deeply 
distressed and clamouring for fiscal aid to the mother- 
country ; now smiling in prosperity and brightened by 
mercantile hope; not long since distracted by civil dis- 
turbances, the fruits of oppression inseparable from its 
institutions; now enjoying peace and tranquillity, with a 
docile, loyal, industrious population, whom the Queen 
of England, or the ruler of any nation, might well be 
gratified to own as subjects. The grand experiment of 
giving unqualified freedom to the slaves of Jamaica and 
our other West Indian islands, has been attended with 
the happiest success. All classes of the population rejoice 
in the result. The prognostications of the planters and 
the mortgagees of colonial property, that the slaves 
when emancipated would become an idle vagabond race, 
a nuisance to the soil — that the fields would go out of 
cultivation — the lives of the white inhabitants be en- 
dangered — and the properties ruined — these and other 
prophecies of the same sackcloth cast, are all falsified by 
the most gratifying facts. Just the reverse of all this 
has taken place; and Jamaica and the other islands 
have begun a new race of prosperity. "Magnus ah 
integro soeclorum nascitur ordoP The labourers work 
well for wages, and squatting and vagabondage are 
unknown. The cane and coffee fields partially ne- 
glected at the coming in of freedom, owing to the 
injudicious attempts of overseers and attorneys to coerce 
labour, by means of rent, are recovering their former 
fruitfulness. Two years have passed away in which we 



WORKING of freedom. 9 

have seen diminished produce, the consequence of unwise 
conduct on the part of the planters ; and a third, in 
which the deficiency has sprung from a visitation of 
Divine providence in a long continued drought. 
Sounder views of political economy, and a wiser con- 
duct than was once pursued have succeeded; the seasons 
are again propitious, and there is now every reason, with 
regard to the future, to look for extended commerce and 
increased prosperity. In passing through Jamaica (and 
we went into almost every district) we scarcely met 
with a single individual who seemed to regret the 
change that had taken place — not one who professed a 
wish, even for gain's sake, to return to the former 
system of slavery. We conversed with men of every 
rank and condition, from the Governor and Judges of 
the island to the Clerk who serves in the counting- 
house, and all bore their unqualified testimony to the 
important fact, that freedom works well. That it 
works well for the labourer is obvious at every step of 
the stranger's progress : the proofs are on every hand ; 
that it works well for the proprietor is demonstrable by 
a few simple and striking facts. The estates of pro- 
prietors, in numerous instances, are worked at a less cost 
now than under slavery. Penn or pasture land, we were 
told as a matter of common observation, may be worked 
cheaper than before : some of the large coffee planta- 
tions we know are so worked, from the testimony of 
the managers themselves ; and we have in our posses- 
sion a letter from the attorney of some of the largest 
sugar estates in the island, in which he distinctly tells 
us, that he sees no reason why sugar properties in the 
district where he lives should not be cultivated as cheap 
as ever they were. To all the proprietors of such lands, 
b3 



10 WORKING OF FREEDOM. 

it is quite evident, that the share of the twenty millions 
which fell to their lot, was given them for nothing. 
The compensation money paid by Great Britain to the 
planters, however it might be intended to operate, serves, 
not as an indemnity to meet losses accruing from the 
great and happy change from slavery to freedom, but to 
clear off the accumulated and fast increasing incum- 
brances which the oppressive and wasteful system of 
slavery had induced. A large proportion of the estates 
in the West Indies had been brought dreadfully into 
debt, and made subject to heavy mortgages. The com- 
pensation money has served to unlock the iron chests 
and set the securities and title deeds free. Instead of 
being subject, as formerly, to all the heavy charges of an 
imperious consignee, imperious and unbending, because 
the estates were under his power, the planter is now 
at liberty to send his produce to the best market, to 
choose for a correspondent the ablest merchant he can 
find, and to bring the expenses of transport within the 
utmost economical limits. One step in economy leads 
to another : he looks about him on every hand : 
pleased with the success of one experiment, he tries 
another, and going on as a cautious, j)rudent man 
ever will do, gets delivered from the consequences of 
former poverty, neglect, and waste. The consequence 
of the present state of things : of physical freedom to 
the slave, and commercial freedom to the master, is this, 
that landed estates are rising in value. The former 
money-value of the slaves has already, in perhaps the 
majority of instances, been transferred to the soil, many 
properties in land now selling for a much larger sum, 
than during the agitation of the slavery question the 
land and the slaves would have sold for together . 



WORKING OP FREEDOM. 11 

What a practical comment on the adage, that justice is 
in all cases the truest policy ; and what an example to 
those nations who, in spite of warning, and in defiance 
of Christian principle persist in continuing slavery ! 

But if, instead of a pecuniary gain to the proprietor, 
the planter should be able to prove a loss — if less sugar 
and rum were likely to be exported, and the profits of 
cane and coffee fields should sink to a minimum : what 
would be the trifling inconvenience compared with the 
immense advantages gained by the labouring com- 
munity ? The proprietary body has rather a smaller 
income than before, but the people are well clothed, 
housed, and fed : chapels and school-houses are erected, 
education is sought after, public worship is frequented, 
the prisons are getting gradually emptied, and a fine, 
free, moral and religious peasantry tread the soil till lately 
disgraced by fetters and the whip. Never was a great 
moral experiment more successfully carried out than the 
abolition of slavery in the British colonies ; never, in 
proportion to the number who were objects of it, was a 
political change attended by such speedily happy results. 
May England persevere in her righteous legislation till 
every vestige of slavery has ceased from her soil in the 
East as well as the West, and may her noble conduct 
stimulate her daughter on the other side the Atlantic. 
and all other nations to follow her example. 



12 RETURN TO HAYTI. 



CHAPTER III. 

RETURN TO HAYTI — SANTIAGO DE CUBA TOWN OF CAPE 

HAYTIEN — PLANTATIONS IN THE PLAINE DU NORD 

EXCURSION TO SANS SOUCI CHRISTOPHE GENERAL 

OBSERVATIONS. 

The year 1840 had now nearly passed away, and the 
employments which had so long detained us in Jamaica 
being brought to a close, we took leave of our many 
kind friends at Kingston, and went on board the 
Government steamer bound for Barbados, with the 
outward mail. The cabin passengers were seventeen 
in number : — some bound for Cuba ; two, like ourselves, 
for Hayti; and the remainder for the windward isles, 
or for Europe. The night was stormy, the wind 
blowing hard a-head, but early the next morning we 
lost sight of land, and at four o'clock, p.m., cast anchor 
in the spacious and beautiful harbour of St. Jago. 
The commander of the packet, knowing the remorse- 
lessness of the Spanish character in these regions, 
advised me not to go on shore, as since we landed 
there twelve months before, a notification had been 
made to the captains of English ships, that no person 
known or suspected to favour missionary or anti-slavery 
principles would be safe in the city, and that the 
British Consul could not, if he would, afford them 
protection. "We felt no disposition to visit the city 
again ; we had perambulated its streets once, and were 



SANTIAGO DE CUBA. 13 

quite content to remain on deck, and take a leisurely 
view of the shipping and the harbour, and the hills and 
mountains that surround it. The dominion of slavery 
may transform man into a monster, but throws no 
curse on natural scenery. Commerce is ever active in 
St. Jago : slaves on the quay and wharf, watched and 
superintended by villanous looking white men and 
half castes, are constantly busy in stowing away foreign 
merchandise, and loading outward-bound vessels with 
copper ore from the neighbouring mines. The city, 
itself gloomy in appearance, like the bondage it fosters, 
has streets of houses built after the Moorish fashion. 
Heavy gateways open into court-yards, surrounded 
by chambers and domestic offices : iron gratings 
in front, instead of windows, frown on the street ; 
jealousies above are substituted for curtains and blinds, 
and broad piazzas on the second floor overhang the 
pavement, protecting passengers from the rays of a 
vertical sun. The streets are hot, unpaved, and dusty, 
and in the middle of the day quiet enough ; some 
common carts may be seen, and, perhaps, a few volantes 
richly painted and gilded, with enormous high wheels, 
and springs and axles so arranged as to adapt them to 
deep gullies and broken ground, in which the wealthy 
slave-owners, or their Creole ladies, without caps or 
bonnets, ride out in a lolling careless posture to transact 
business, or make their morning calls.- At our first 
visit to this port, in company with a young Peruvian, 
our fellow -passenger, we called at the house of a bar- 
rister, a friend of his, whose wife and daughter received 
us with much courtesy. Almost as soon as we were 
seated fruit was ordered, and when we had partaken 
of it, a female slave entered the room with a pitcher of 



14 SANTIAGO DE CUBA. 

water and basin, and a towel on her arm, and after 
pouring water on our hands in succession, and handing 
us the towel, removed the remainder of the feast, 
and left the room. The inhabitants of Santiago are 
estimated at from twenty-five to thirty thousand, of 
whom a large number are household and out-door 
slaves, in abject degrading servitude. We saw no 
glass windows in a single house, except in the resi- 
dence of the British Consul. 

In the course of a few hours our commander received 
the mail, and we again threaded our way amongst 
the many vessels in the harbour, passed the castle of 
Moro, and once more set sail in a stormy sea. The 
threat now held out to missionaries and abolitionists who 
dare to set foot on Cuban soil is, that " they shall be sent 
to the Moro, and there lie without salvation." Another 
rough night and swelling waves; but before noon on 
the morrow we came in sight of Cape Nicholas Mole, in 
Hayti, leaving the eastern coast of Cuba yet visible far 
behind us. Early in the morning of the following day, we 
landed a second time at Cape Haytien. It was the first 
day of the new year 1841, the thirty- seventh anniversary 
of Haytien independence, and of course kept as a 
national festival. Liberty was proclaimed by Dessalines 
— equal law and liberty to all classes in 1804. The 
custom-house was closed, a sentinel or two watched the 
landing of the passengers, and their luggage was sent 
under guard to the public store. There are no taverns 
in Hayti like those of Europe, where strangers are sure 
to get accommodated for money ; boarding-houses are 
found in some of the larger towns, and where there 
are none, the traveller must solicit board and lodging 
a3 a favour, and grass for his horses if travelling on the 



CITY OF CAPE HAYTIEX. 15 

road ; and get on in the best way he can. We obtained 
private apartments at the Cape, at the honse of La Veuve 
Piquion, a respectable coloured matron, who keeps a 
store on the quay, and is much esteemed by her neigh- 
bours for the prudent manner in which she trains up a 
large family of sons and daughters. This good lady 
received us as her guests, with liberty to dine alone, or 
at a common table with herself and her children. For 
the first few days we preferred the latter, and after that, 
for several weeks used a common saloon with our friends 
Henry and Maria W. Chapman, of Boston, Massachusetts, 
who, advocates of anti- slavery principles like ourselves, 
had come to this island to inspect the state and condition 
of the people, to see the country, and improve their 
health. At this house we were handsomely entertained, 
with much satisfaction to ourselves, at a moderate cost, 
and had no reason to repent our choice of a tavern. Let 
not travellers from England and America expect, how- 
ever, to find in Hayti well-furnished lodging rooms, 
privacy of retirement, or those common comforts which 
in their own ordinary family routine at home are consi- 
dered as essential. They may depend on being supplied 
with good food, and if they wish it, with the fine fruits 
of the country, and the light wines of France : they 
may find a lodging-room sheltered from the rays of the 
sun, and the rains of heaven ; more than these in the 
shape of entertainment they must not look for. There 
are many discomforts in Haytien domestic life, to which 
only the mind naturally contented in itself can easily 
become reconciled. 

We had brought with us to this country some 
large cases filled with elementary books for young 
people, reading lessons for public schools, and a good 



Ol 



16 CITY OF CAPE HAYTIEN. 

store of moral and religious works, chiefly in the 
French and Spanish languages, which had been liberally 
furnished by our friends in England. The duty on books 
imported is very high in this island, amounting to 
about twenty-five per cent, on the cost price ; but when 
I explained to the Director of the Customs that they 
were brought for gratuitous distribution, and not as 
merchandize, he generously allowed them to pass 
duty free. This circumstance was the less expected 
by us, and the more welcome, inasmuch as the British 
Vice-Consul who had observed these cases in the 
store, and knew their contents, had told us we should 
probably have much difficulty in getting them passed at 
all. Our escape from trouble and cost on this occasion, 
was partly owing to a young mulatto who had been in 
Europe, and knew something of the religious society to 
which we belonged, who told the sable chief he might 
safely depend on our word. We are bound to bear 
testimony to this act of kindness on the part of the 
authorities, and to state that, in passing through the 
island, we received everywhere from this and every other 
class of public functionaries, polite and confiding atten- 
tions. Let not the white man, in the pride of his com- 
plexion, look down with disdain on these black repub- 
licans : there are men in office in the island of Hayti, 
both black and coloured, who would bear comparison 
with men of the same class in any part of the world. 
Having entered our names at the civil tribunal, and 
promised submission to the laws of the state during our 
sojourn, we were left at liberty to act as we pleased, 
and to go anywhere within the limits of the Cape. 
Whoever travels in the interior must procure a passport j. i 
from the General commanding the arrondissement. 



CITY OF CAPE HAYTIEN. 17 

The city of Cape Haytien, now for a time our resi- 
dence, stands on the north-east side of a bay semicircled 
by hills of great elevation, such as in most countries 
would be called mountains. By these hills the extensive 
level district of " La plaine du Nord" is shut out from 
view. Standing on the quay, nothing strikes the eye 
but high land and wide ocean, except that at one point 
the level land leading to the mountains presents itself, 
and the glittering sea-side village of La petite anse. In 
former days, under the French dominion, this was con- 
sidered the handsomest town of all the West Indies, and 
the most flourishing. It is still as large as ever, but 
half of it is in ruins, the public buildings and a large 
number of the houses having been battered down by 
cannon and musquetry, or destroyed by fire during the 
wars of the revolution, and never yet rebuilt. The 
pavement of some of the streets was broken up during 
the same dismal strife, or has since that period been 
ploughed up by the torrents which pour down from the 
mountains. The tonte ensemhle of the town, from 
these causes, has somewhat of a melancholy aspect, and 
gives the stranger at first view an unfavourable and 
rather gloomy impression. Its front towards the sea is 
nearly a mile in length ; and its breadth, backward to 
the hills, about three-quarters of a mile. Making allow- 
ance for all irregularities, Cape Haytien may be described 
as a city having twenty-seven streets, running east and 
west, crossed at right angles by nineteen others from 
north to south, containing what once were good houses, 
some of them magnificent, of two and three stories, 
built of brick or stone, and covered with slates, tiles, 
and mahogany or pine shingles. A wide gutter runs 
down the middle of each principal street, and con- 



18 CITY OF CAPE HAYTIEN. 

veys the mountain rains from the hills to the sea. In 
general appearance, the place strikingly resembles St. 
Pierre, of Martinique ; both are built after the fashion 
of France, and have their prototype in the more modern 
towns of that country. The basement story of many of 
the houses is occupied in stores, warehouses, and stables ; 
the upper part only being furnished as a residence for 
the family. The population in 1789, amounted to 
18,500 ; the present number of the inhabitants, includ- 
ing the small garrison, is supposed to be about nine 
thousand. The cathedral is a handsome structure, 
lately rebuilt by public subscription ; the military hos- 
pital has been also of late restored, and improvements 
are going on in other quarters. There are several hand- 
some squares in the city, with fountains yielding good 
water, but we looked in vain through them all for the 
small temple commemorative of freedom, of which a 
drawing is given by Rainsford in his ample quarto, and 
which has been copied by the Penny Magazine, in a 
sketch of the Life of Toussaint L' Ouverture, ascribed to 
the pen of Harriet Martineau. There may have been 
such a building, but it is not to be found here. The 
trade of Cape Haytien is greatly decayed, though still 
respectable. Much has been said of the salubrity of 
Hayti, but the town and environs of the Cape afford 
no proof of it. The rays of a vertical sun beaming 
with full force are reflected by the hills behind, and 
concentrated to a focus in the streets ; added to which 
there are marshes, and some low swampy land in the 
immediate neighbourhood which yield at certain seasons 
a pestiferous malaria. It is true, there are refreshing 
winds blowing constantly from the sea in the day time, 
which serve to moderate and temper the excessive heat, 



REVIEW OF THE TROOPS. 19 

and to dissipate the noxious air ; but the place, not- 
withstanding, must be unhealthy, especially after the 
heavy rains. During the military rule of Christophe, 
whom every body, when speaking of him, designates not 
as King, but as Monsieur, Cape Haytien was the capital 
of the island. This remarkable and very ambitious man 
began here the erection of a palace for himself, which 
was left unfinished at his death, and which now lies a 
desolation, as if to scoff at the pride of kingship, and 
level distinctions in the dust. On the western side of 
the town is a large open plain, called Le champ de Mars, 
where he used to exercise his troops. On this plain, 
during our stay at the Cape, we witnessed a review of 
the militia of the arrondissement or district, who are 
brought out once a quarter for a single day. Early in the 
morning the drums w r ere beating in every part of the 
city, and the soldiers, some on horseback, some on foot, 
clothed in dark military coats and white trowsers, not 
a precise uniform, were seen pouring in through the 
barrier, and sauntering to the place of rendezvous. At 
eight o'clock the square was formed. About two 
thousand foot soldiers, and three hundred horse, were 
mustered on the field. The commander, General Bottex, 
once in the confidence of Christophe, but now a sturdy 
republican, came to the ground with his field-officers, 
handsomely attired and mounted. Every officer had the 
accoutrements of his rank, and almost every charger was 
covered with a gay saddle-cloth. The troops were 
indiscriminately mixed of black and coloured, the latter 
bearing a proportion of perhaps two in ten. A con- 
siderable number of spectators made their appearance — 
women dressed in white and chintz, with gay turban 
Madras handkerchiefs, leadiDg their children in holiday 



20 REVIEW OF THE TROOPS. 

garments ; and many young black gentlemen, too young 
to be yet in the ranks, came well dressed, with cane in 
hand, or a handsome whip, riding on good ponies, with 
yellow and puce coloured saddle-cloths, and pistol-cases 
on their saddle-bows. The scene was gay and lively, 
and seemed to afford much delight to the company 
assembled ; but it was speedily closed : the morning 
proved unfavourable, a shower of rain came on, and the 
General dismissed the troops before the review had well 
begun. Every citizen of a given age not enrolled in the 
standing army, or specially exempt by some profession, 
is required to serve in the militia, and every individual 
provides at his own cost his arms, clothing, and accoutre- 
ments. Great ridicule has been attempted to be cast on 
the Haytien soldiery, who are represented in caricature 
as so many scarecrows : their appearance on the present 
occasion, except in the want of an exact uniform, was 
nearly as respectable as that of an English brigade. 

The only effectual employment of the soldiery in 
Hayti, is that of an armed police : they drum and fife, 
and muster on parade, and go through their evolutions, 
but the country is in perfect peace, and they have 
nothing to do, that tells for anything, but to stand 
sentry at the doors of the public offices, and be ready 
at the command of the magistrate to hunt up les 
mauvais sujets ; to guard prisons and prisoners who 
work in the chain-gangs, and to loiter or lounge at the 
barriers, collecting tolls and examining permits. One of 
the most appalling sights at Cape Haytien is the groups 
of criminals chained together, and sent into the streets 
and suburbs to repair the roads and highways, accom- 
panied by soldiers with loaded muskets. These poor 
wretches are often ill fed and half naked, and some of 



PUBLIC PRISON. 21 

them gaunt and miserable, but happily their number is 
not large. The Public Prison is a good building, with 
spacious yards and clean apartments : it contained at 
the time of our visit only forty sentenced prisoners. 
The women are kept apart from the men, and the 
debtors and convicts for petty offences have a ward to 
themselves. The most hardened criminals who compose 
the chain-gang, have a number of small rooms opening 
into a close, narrow, common yard, which we were per- 
mitted to look into through a sort of wicket, but not to 
enter, as we had no special order for this part of the 
prison, and Captain Bottex, the Governors son who kindly 
conducted us, had no power to demand an entrance. Some 
of the inmates were employed in plaiting grass and 
rushes for baskets and mats, to eke out their miserable 
subsistence of a few plantains weekly, others were quite 
idle, and some nearly naked. The lunatics were kept 
distinct from the criminals. This prison afforded us no 
very favourable impression with regard to discipline, but 
is probably quite as good as some of our English and 
Irish prisons even at the present day. The Military 
Hospital is a noble edifice, with large, long, well-venti- 
lated, well-furnished apartments, and fitted up with a 
good kitchen, and hot and cold baths. It contained but 
sixteen patients, who appeared to have all the physical 
comforts that men under their circumstances could desire. 
There is a physician, a lay superintendent, and several 
servants. The Hospital for the Poor is in a dilapidated 
state and has few inmates. A society is formed to 
endeavour to repair the buildings by public subscription, 
and to make it an asylum worthy of a good city. We 
had no reason to suppose from anything we saw or 
heard, that much destitution or extreme poverty 



22 HOSPITALITY OF THE PEOPLE. 

prevails. There is in the negro race a spirit of kindness 
not common to barbarous or half- civilised nations; 
such is the testimony of Mungo Park and other African 
travellers ; and a disposition to help others is fostered 
in this country by the influence of the Roman Catholic 
religion, which teaches its votaries to rely on good works 
as the ground of justification, and as meriting an eternal 
reward. A few days before our arrival at the Cape, a 
ship from Bremen with a hundred and seventy German 
emigrants, bound for New Orleans, had been wrecked 
at Point Isabella, and driven on shore in a heavy gale 
of wind. No lives were lost; much damage was sus- 
tained, but the passengers and the crew were brought 
in safety to the Cape. The news of their arrival — 
strangers in a strange land, speaking an unknown 
tongue, dejected, care-worn, much of their little property 
lost in the wreck, some of them sick, and nearly all 
without food — -aroused the feelings of these good people, 
and awakened the liveliest sympathy. No Consul of 
their own nation to protect them, they might have 
perished of hunger, but for the generous assistance of all 
[ classes of the citizens. The authorities, all black or 
\ coloured men, ordered houses to be open for their 
l reception, into which beds and moveables were con- 
veyed ; medical men proffered their assistance, and the 
inhabitants supplied them with food and clothing. We 
passed through some of the buildings where they were 
placed, and were cheered to witness the alacrity with 
which they were served. Their sorrows were soon 
soothed by these kind attentions, and some of them, fore- 
going the pleasure which they had promised themselves 
in an early meeting with their friends in Louisiana, 
who had left their father-land before them, made 



POPULATION OF THE CITY. 23 

arrangements for a temporary sojourn in Hayti, 
where work at fair wages was promised them, and 
where they had found an asylum in distress. There are 
no poor laws in Hayti ; assistance to the poor is volun- 
tary ; and from the abundance and cheapness of pro- 
visions, a small quantity of silver goes a great way. 
There is much reason to fear, however, that great 
suffering ensues from want of efficient medical help. 
The charges of medical men are not high, as in Jamaica 
and other of the islands ; but owing to the little 
emulation that prevails among the people, and their 
consequent want of ready money, they are unable, 
especially in country places, to procure good advice and 
suitable medicines when needed. When an epidemic 
of an alarming character shews itself, a great mortality 
ensues. From this cause the increase of population is 
probably not larger in Hayti, where the soil is luxuriantly 
fertile, and where every man who is industrious, may by 
very little exertion procure all the common comforts of 
life, than it is in the old and crowded countries of Europe. 
It is very difficult, if not impossible, to judge of the 
healthiness or otherwise of particular districts from the 
mortality, owing to the extreme uncertainty of the 
number of deaths. Births are well registered, because 
almost every infant is brought to the priest to be 
baptised ; but large numbers die and are buried in the 
country, of whom no notice is ever taken. A census is 
only taken in the town, and then in so imperfect a 
manner, as to leave the subject of population always in 
perplexity and doubt. The following is an abstract of 
the register of Cape Haytien : — 

1839. Born 329. Died 349. Married — 

1840. Born 353. Died 297. Married 32. 



24 BIRTHS, DEATHS, AND MARRIAGES. 

The deaths in this city, which is governed by a 
Corporation and regulated by municipal laws, are said 
to be accurately recorded : the number of inhabitants is 
reported at something less than nine thousand. The 
year of 1839, was one of great sickness ; but taking the 
average of the two years, the births were as one in 
twenty-five of the population — about the same average 
as in England : the deaths as one in twenty-six, or 
about fifty per cent, higher than in England. The 
marriages are one in 266, or less than half the number 
that take place in this country, and as a natural 
consequence, a large proportion of the children born 
are illegitimate. This statement, whilst it proves 
nothing as to the general rate of increase in the whole 
island, proves very decidedly that Cape Haytien is a 
very unhealthy locality. This want of health among 
the people cannot arise from bad dwellings, for the 
houses are good and airy, and well fortified against the 
influence of weather ; it must be attributed, as before 
observed, to its situation at the foot of high hills, 
reflecting the beams of a scorching sun, and from 
swampy ground. But few of the merchants or prin- 
cipal inhabitants are married men : concubinage is 
common, and unhappily, regarded as not dishonourable. 
Whenever a ball is given, or a large party invited, 
the invitation is equally extended to " Monsieur and 

Madame ," or to " Monsieur and his lady f 

and by this confounding of moral distinctions among 
the upper classes, the evil descends to the lower 
ranks, and becomes perpetuated. Some of the mer- 
chants at the Cape are wealthy men, keep their coun- 
try houses, and give handsome dinners, at which they 
make a great display of servants, and costly plate : 



EXCURSION TO SANS SOUCI. 25 

they usually attend their stores and counting-houses 
during the day, and take their exercise on horseback 
an hour or two before sunset. Horses abound in the 
island, some of which are trained to great swiftness, 
and are always to be had at a moderate cost, either on 
purchase or hire. Not choosing to encumber ourselves 
with horses and servants during our limited stay, we 
hired two steeds which were to be always ready at our 
call, and in this manner, sometimes alone, sometimes 
accompanied by our friends from America, we explored 
the hills above the town, which afford many interesting 
rambles; and made sundry excursions to the sugar 
estates on the plain. One of the most agreeable 
journeys we made in this desultory manner was to Sans 
Souci, once the palace of King Henry Christophe, 
which lies at five leagues distance from the Cape along 
the level plain, and between a defile of hills, that 
form the termination of an extensive mountain range. 
General Bottex, the Commandant, had given us per- 
mission to visit it, as also the citadel. At three o'clock 
in the morning, the moon shining bright, the horses for 
our little company stood ready caparisoned at the door. 
Our good tempered laughing hostess, La veuve Piquion, 
a short fat personage, came out attired in a white 
muslin robe, with a damask silk shawl of crimson and 
white on her shoulders, and a yellow turban handker- 
chief on her head ; the latter was surmounted by a 
new black beaver hat, surrounded by a broad golden 
band, bespangled in front by a golden star and buckle, 
and adorned with black plumes made to nod like a tuft 
of ostrich feathers. The back of her palfrey was spread 
over with a rich puce-coloured saddle-cloth, bordered 
with a fringe of gold lace : her second son, Francis 

c 



26 EXCURSION TO SANS SOUCI. 

whom she had selected to be our guide, stood solemnly 
by, with a long sword at his side, according to the 
country phrase, " pour nous debar asser des meckants ;" 
and as soon as he had seen the rest of us mounted, 
sprung on his own saddle, which was adorned with 
pistol cases, and led the way along the quay to the city 
gate. My horse also was duly furnished with pistol 
cases, covered with leopard skin, but without fire arms : 
that of my wife was unincumbered. We presently 
cleared Le champ de Mars, and came to the barrier. 
The sentries were perhaps asleep, but the name of our 
hostess, Piquion, loudly shouted, brought the officer 
out who listened to the watch- word, or the tale she told 
him, and the gate was opened. The rain a few days 
before had fallen in torrents, and the road was, in some 
places, so intolerably deep in mire, that we could only 
pick our way slowly and by piecemeal, seldom exceed- 
ing a foot pace. About three miles from the city, we 
met a curious group of country people in carts, and 
with horses and asses loaded with yams, plantains, and 
sweet potatoes, and some with bundles of guinea grass, 
for sale at the morning market : they were bivouacking 
by fire-light, sipping coffee, and waiting for the hour 
when the city gate should be thrown open. The glare of 
fire-light in the decaying moonbeams, on a company of 
faces varying in colour from yellow brown to jet black, 
and displaying teeth of ivory whiteness, produced a 
singular effect. Soon after, we met other groupes, 
some on foot, others on horseback; the women riding 
astride, like men, with infants in their arms, or asleep 
behind them in apron folds at their back. Urchins of 
boys, as is almost always the case in these expeditions, 
ran before, or behind, and everywhere. "Bon jour. 



EXCURSION TO SANS SOUCI. 27 

Monsieur" u Bon jour Madame" were the cheerful 
salutations that met our ear, accompanied, sometimes 
by a sentence of unintelligible Creole, half French, 
half African, that amused us from its oddity. The 
people were dressed in common clothing ; the women 
in dark blue check, or printed cotton, with a Madras 
handkerchief; the men in white jackets, or worn out 
military coats ; the children in an Osnaburgh shirt or 
shift, some of them more than half-naked. The appear- 
ance of the men was rather ragamuffin, something like 
that of a banditti. The common people of Hayti are 
wonderfully docile, and free from the charge of attempts 
at highway robbery, or we should not have wondered at 
the strange fashion, for it is only a fashion, of going 
armed through the country. It was once a common 
custom in the Spanish part of the island, and is now 
absurdly adopted on the French side. The roads we 
passed over had hedges of the ordinary description, in 
some places formed of the penguin aloe, or a plant with 
sharp prickly pointed leaves, called Adam's needle ; and 
in others of logwood, which grows to a great height. 
We passed by the massive gateways of many deserted 
or neglected sugar estates, where the mansions that once 
adorned them, are now crumbling and in ruins, shewing 
the marks of their former destruction by fire, and sub- 
sequent decay. As the sun rose, we entered the defile 
leading to Sans Souci, and as soon as we reached the 
village, dismounted and ordered breakfast. 

The Major-Commandant of the place had received 
orders from the General to shew us respect. In conse- 
quence of the numerous books we had distributed, and 
the attention we had paid to the public school, the 
cognomen of philanthropists had been bestowed on 

c2 



2d sans souci. 

us at the Cape. A mounted cavalier came to the 
door, and seeing me, a stranger, addressed our young 
attendant with the question, " Qui est ce Monsieur, 
Le jrfiilanthrope T " Qui, le meme" was the reply. 
Leaving his horse to the care of a soldier who stood 
by, he immediately entered the house, introduced by 
young Piquion, as " Le Commandant de place" Caught 
in an undress, much, as we supposed, to his mortifica- 
tion, he could not assume the official consequence which 
attaches, more particularly, to black officers in the 
army. We sat together a few minutes, and I had good 
leisure to survey his habiliments. Over a Madras 
handkerchief wrapped tight round his head, like a man 
suffering with a grievous cold, he had placed a large 
cocked hat, which from its rusty colour, seemed to have 
done service in the civil wars, twenty years before : the 
nap, if it ever had any, was worn off, and a rent in the 
front of it had been carelessly repaired by a kind of 
packthread. The lace of his coat was tarnished; 
sundry rents and gashes exhibited the lining : and his 
trowsers, once of blue cotton or jean had been washed 
to a dirty white. He was, however, vastly complaisant, 
and w T e were very polite to each other. Was it our 
pleasure to visit the citadel ? This we found would 
have been too much to accomplish so as to return to 
the Cape the same day : we therefore declined it, but 
begged permission to visit the palace. He would con- 
duct us himself to the palace of " Monsieur Christophe" 
with great pleasure, and shew us whatever we wished 
to see. A friend of his, Jacques Cassar, a magistrate 
and architect of the neighbouring chapel, who sat in the 
room, requested leave to be one of the party. The 
first view of Sans Souci from the village is very striking. 



SAKS SOUCI. 29 

The palace stands between two lofty hills well covered 
with fine trees; and mountains rise on the back ground, 
on one of which the citadel stands. The buildings, 
though once splendid, were never in good architectural 
taste, and defaced as they now are from the battering 
of cannon and musket balls, windows shattered, walls 
crumbling, and the roof falling in, they resemble a huge 
deserted cotton factory. The whole domain, when 
properly maintained in the days of Christophe, must 
have been a princely affair, and adds one to the many 
other proofs he gave, that it was his ambition to be 
thought every inch of him a King. The rooms were 
spacious and lofty, the floors and side panels of polished 
mahogany, or beautifully inlaid with mosaic: the apart- 
ments are said to have been sumptuously furnished: 
and the gardens and the baths for the young princesses 
were all in keeping with the general splendour. The 
coach-houses and stables were magnificent. A number 
of the royal carriages still remain, the panels of which 
gilded and emblazoned by the royal arms, shew at how 
great a cost they must have been constructed. One of 
the coaches was built in London, and cost ,£700 
sterling, and when equipped, as it used to be, with six 
fine grey horses and postilions on splendid saddles, 
bearing a King and his Chamberlain in their robes of 
state, must have struck the gazing negro crowd with 
astonishment. These splendid baubles are suffered by 
the present republican government to remain and 
moulder, and everything belonging to the palace to fall 
to decay, as a satire on the follies of kingship, and to 
render the name of King odious. The horse barracks 
in the vicinity of Sans Souci are deserted ; and only a 
few straggling soldiers occupy the post. As soon as 



30 SANS SOUCI. 

the rebel troops heard that Christophe was dead, they 
made an immediate furious attack on the palace : the 
dead body of their monarch was treated with indignity, 
scarcely saved from mutilation by a bribe from the 
Queen ; musketry was discharged through the windows 
from the areas below; the secret chambers were ran- 
sacked, and the treasures of gold and silver, of which 
there was an ample booty, at once secured. The huge 
mirrors that adorned the walls, in which — 

« He of Gatk, 

Goliath, might have seen his giant bulk 

Whole without stooping, towering crest and all.'"— 

were dashed to atoms. Everything within doors, and 
everything without was exposed to the rapine and 
fury of a soldier mob. 

Christophe was the ruler of Hayti fifteen years. Born 
in Grenada or St. Kitt's, (history is doubtful which) he 
found his way to Cape Haytien when a very young 
man, and entered early on a military life. Accepting 
a commission under Toussaint L'Ouverture, he distin- 
guished himself in many achievements; and when that 
great and deeply injured man was betrayed and sent 
prisoner to France, he made common cause with the 
ferocious Dessalines to revenge, by renewed hostilities, 
the perfidy of the French. At the death of Dessalines, 
the northern army elected him chief of Hayti. He 
never, however, obtained the rule of more than half the 
territory of even that part of the island which had be- 
longed to France; and the number of his subjects, when 
King, probably never exceeded two hundred thousand. 
Although he began his career with an evident desire 
to improve the condition of the people, and give them 



CHRISTOPHE. 31 

a standing among civilized nations, the maxims of his 
government were unfortunately tyrannical. Wanting a 
revenue, and not knowing how otherwise to obtain it, 
and believing also that the people had become too 
much dissipated by war to labour willingly for wages, 
he compelled field labour at the point of the bayonet. 
By this means, he secured large crops of sugar and rum ; 
and making himself, like Mohammed Ali of Egypt, the 
principal merchant in his own dominions, he became 
rich, kept a court, and maintained a standing army. 
He took possession of the best plantations in his own 
right, and gave others to some of his military comrades, 
and a few civilians who pleased him, on whom he 
bestowed the titles of Barons, Counts, and Dukes. The 
Chateaux Royaux, as his own and the Queens domains 
were denominated, were worked by soldiers disbanded, 
or on leave of absence. In the last year of Christophe, 
twenty of these plantations yielded ten millions of 
pounds of sugar, equal to 5000 hogsheads of a ton 
weight each. One of them, three leagues from the Cape, 
called the Queens Delight , yielded 500 hogsheads of 
superior sugar, of the enormous weight of 25 cwt. each. 
Many of the estates of his great men were cultivated 
like his own, by coerced labour. Liberty did not at 
once obtain dominion in Hayti. The black army had 
triumphed ; but the black generals forgetting the pit of 
slavery from whence they had emerged, exercised but 
little mercy, and showed but little regard to their 
companions in arms who had fought under them in the 
ranks. Over this part of the history of the Haytien 
revolution, philosophy and humanity might gladly draw 
the veil. 

Christophe and Petion were political rivals, and a 



32 CHRISTOPHE. 

murderous war of some years was carried on between 
them. Buoyant at first with success, Christophe 
became soured in after life through repeated dis- 
appointments. Possessing great powers of mind, he 
resolved on great enterprises, and having once under- 
taken a project would suffer no controllable difficulty to 
interrupt its progress. The citadel of La Ferriere had 
been begun by the French : he determined to carry out 
the design? and make it one of the strongest fortresses 
of the world. I asked Captain Agendeau of Cape 
Haytien, who worked two years and a half as a 
prisoner within the walls, how many persons had lost 
their lives by hard labour during its erection ? " As 
many persons," he replied, " as there are stones in the 
building : every stone cost the life of a human being." 
This famous citadel was reared by bands of men and 
women, who were compelled to labour on very insuffi- 
cient rations of food : vast numbers died in consequence 
of exhaustion, and many more of wounds and bruises 
received in the cruel work of forcing stones and other 
heavy materials up the steep sides of the mountain. 
Prisoners were employed upon it. Captain Agendeau 
was sent there, with thirty-two other coloured men, out 
of revenge for the escape of two mulattos who had gone 
to join Petion's army at Port-au-Prince. Christophe 
had a strong and invincible prejudice against the 
coloured class, of whom Petion was one. The coloured 
people were aware of it, both men and women; and 
endeavoured, it is believed, by secret counsels, to effect 
his overthrow. On his return to Sans Souci, on one 
particular occasion, he was informed that during his 
absence, the mulatto women of Cape Haytien had 
offered up prayers in the great church that he might 



CHRISTOPHE. 33 

never be permitted to return again to his palace : 
revenge rankled in his soul — his purpose was imme- 
diately taken — he ordered a company of his soldiers to 
make domiciliary visits, and lead out the accused 
women to summary execution. A dark retired spot, 
about a mile from the city was chosen for the massacre ; 
and here in cold blood these unhappy victims of cruelty 
were butchered. Bayonets were plunged into their 
bosoms, and their dead bodies cast into a deep well ; 
this well is now called, The Well of Death, and nobody 
will drink of its waters. We took a walk to the place 
with one of the citizens, who assured us that there was 
scarcely a coloured family at the Cape who had not to 
mourn a near relation, lost to them in that horrid 
catastrophe. Many other acts of Christophers cruelty 
and tyranny were related to us by eye and ear witnesses. 
Not an individual in the north of Hayti affects to 
doubt of his tyranny, or attempts to palliate his mis- 
deeds. A respectable merchant, who when young 
served in the citadel, assured us, that the King on rising 
early one morning proceeded to the hospital, and rinding 
that the French physician whom he had engaged to 
attend the troops had not yet made his appearance, 
sent for him, and gave him a severe reprimand; high 
words ensued — the King ordered him to be beaten — the 
physician, indignant at this treatment, said, " You 
have dishonoured me ; you may as well take off my 
head at once." " Do ycu desire that V said Christophe, 
" your wish shall be gratified;" an immediate order 
was given to his guards: the culprit was led into a 
near apartment, and his body presently brought out 
a headless trunk. One of Christophe' s generals was a 
black man, (we conceal his name, though it is well 

c 3 



34 CHRISTOPHE. 

known in Hayti) who having heard of the orders 
given to destroy the mulatto women at the Cape, 
inhumanly killed his own concubine, who was one of 
the number, and his child, One day, when in company 
with the King, hoping to obtain his favour from the 
circumstance, he related what he had done. The 
monarch, for once, seemed horror-struck ; anger flashed 
in his dark face, and whirling his baton at the General's 
head, he knocked out one of his eyes. This very officer 
— this executioner of his most intimate friend, this literal 
" monstrum korrendum cui lumen ademptum" passed 
over to the republican side, when President Boyer 
made his triumphal entry at the Cape, and now com- 
mands an arrondissement in the eastern part of the 
island ! The fact here given was related to us, both in 
the north and south by different individuals. One fact 
more, and we shall close for the present our catalogue 
of crime. Leaving Sans Souci one morning for the 
Cape, in a carriage drawn by his beautiful greys, the 
road being miry from a heavy shower of rain, the 
wheels stuck fast in the mud; the angry chief descended 
from his carriage, and with his own hand, as the story 
was told us, hamstrung the horses with his sword, and 
laid a contribution on the citizens at Cape Haytien to 
the value of the horses, for not having kept the road in 
repair ! These and similar freaks and crimes, were the 
outbursts of a semi-barbarian mind, untutored, undis- 
ciplined, but formed by nature for great purposes, and 
endowed with extraordinary gifts. This great man, 
for great he was as well as cruel, had the sagacity to 
see that nothing but education could raise the mass of 
his subjects from the heathen ignorance and degradation 
into which slavery had plunged them. He resolved, 



CHRISTOPHE. 35 

therefore, on establishing schools for boys and a college ; 
and his purposes for good, as well as for evil, being 
always acted on with energy, he addressed letters to the 
philanthropists of England, invited over competent 
masters, built school rooms, imported books and lessons, 
set up printing presses, and began the good work of 
education for this class of his subjects, with a diligent 
unsparing hand. The education of girls was wholly 
neglected. Few schools were set up at first, or indeed 
at any time, in the rural districts ; but one at least was 
established in every town. The common branches of 
elementary education were taught, together with the 
English language, which he vainly hoped might be 
made to supersede the French, and the mathematics. 
Young men were trained at the college to serve as 
engineers, physicians, and classical instructors. Several 
of the schools are now extinct, but the fruits of them 
remain ; the encouragement thus given to learning has 
had its influence on Haytien society to the present day. 
Several civilians and officers of the army, who were 
taught in these schools, are men of capability and 
intelligence, and speak the English language fluently ; 
they venerate our country, and our tongue remains 
an object of study and emulation to their children. 
Christophe was not only the patron of education but 
of industry ; and it gave him pleasure to see his country 
recovering the ground lost in the civil wars, and 
advancing in name and wealth. He promoted industry 
on the principles laid down by his predecessor, 
Toussaint, but went far beyond him in urging the 
severities of the rural code: this among other things 
tended to render him unpopular ; and when remon- 
strated with by Sir Home Popham, the English Admiral 



36 CHRISTOPHE. 

who came on a visit to him from Jamaica, he justified 
himself on the ground that he understood best the cha- 
racter of his own people, and that decision, firmness, and 
severity were indispensable. He desired also, and ear- 
nestly promoted the extension of legitimate commerce, 
which he followed up very much after the manner of the 
present Pacha of Egypt ; and had many points in his 
character which would have made him to rank high 
among rulers, had not ambition and tyranny marred the 
great and generous qualities which really existed in his 
mind. Tyranny, during the last few years of his life 
was his ruling infirmity, and led to his overthrow. A 
beginning mutiny had broken out at St. Mark : he gave 
orders to the garrison at the Cape to march out imme- 
diately, seize the ringleaders, and put them to death. 
"Let us rather go to Sans Souci," said the officers, "and 
cut off his own head." " I am ready to join you." said 
the Duke de Marmalade. A largess was given to the 
soldiers, and they marched toward the palace. The 
King learned too late the extent of the conspiracy, and 
felt at once that his reign was ended : he was sick at 
home unable to mount his horse; and ordering all 
who were about his person to leave the room, he took a 
pistol, and deliberately shot himself dead. Such was 
the end of this negro chief; a man, who in the 
beginning, and in some subsequent stages of its 
career, seemed likely, under Divine providence, to 
prove a blessing to Hayti. His aims were great, and 
many of them good, but being mixed with turbulence 
and passion, they brought misery to many of his 
subjects, and proved of little advantage to the people 
whom he governed. In one respect, he excelled 
Charlemagne; he could write his own name, but 



RETURN TO THE CAPE. 37 

this, as far as the art of writing went, is said to 
have been the extent of his accomplishment. He 
dictated letters and despatches, and was an admirable 
judge of the fitness and relevancy of words. His 
private secretary was the Baron de Yastey, a mulatto, 
a man of respectable literary acquirements, as his 
history of Hayti shows, but of a base dishonourable 
disposition. 

On returning from Sans Souci to the Cape, we took 
a new road by La grande riviere and Le quart ier 
Morin, passing through the midst of many fine sugar 
plantations, either deserted, or cultivated only in part 
by a few labourers, who work on the system recognised 
by the Code rurale, and now in general use, of receiving 
one-quarter of the net produce, with provisions to live 
on, or half the produce without. Among the planta- 
tions we noticed in the course of the day, were the 
following, Praderes, Camfort, Gerbier, Charrier, Le 
Pont, Fontinelle, Ice, Lacombe, Lalande, Carre, Sans 
Souci, and Duplas, The plantation Ice belongs to La 
veuve Belliard, where we stopped and conversed with 
some of the shipwrecked emigrants who had here ob- 
tained employment, and were just sat down in one of the 
large outbuildings to a substantial repast. Lacombe is 
the property of Jacques Caesar, the intelligent magistrate 
and architect, who accompanied us through the ruined 
apartments of the palace, and who persuaded us to pay 
him a hasty visit at his own home. We could not fail 
here to be struck with the entire equality that seems now 
to subsist in Hayti between servant and master. Every 
workman that made his appearance was addressed in 
the courteous language, u Mon Jils" and on inquiring 
the cause, we found it to be that the profits of planting 



38 HETtmN TO THE CAPE. 

were good, labourers were scarce, and that it was neces- 
sary to conciliate all by kindness, or no work would be 
done. Good land may be had of the government in 
every part of the island at a low price ; and any man 
not satisfied with his condition as a private labourer, 
may easily buy it, and become a freeholder in his own 
right. The slave cabins of a former proprietor remained 
on Lacombe, and were tenanted by the labourers, who 
work in common, as joint sharers with the proprietor of 
the produce. These cabins or houses, like many others 
that we saw on other plantations are something better 
than those of Jamaica ; but the people in general are not 
so well clothed, and some of the children are quite 
naked. The peasantry of Hayti, through the prevalence 
of heathenism and ignorance, have little emulation, and 
few wants, and grow up contented with common fare, 
coarse clothing, and enjoyments of a mere animal 
nature : it is true, they work to live, as without some 
labour they cannot subsist ; but they do not, and they 
will not work hard to please anybody, and hence 
agriculture languishes, and commerce is stationary. 
Duplas is one of the many plantations denominated 
Chateaux Royaux, formerly cultivated by Christophe 
for his own personal benefit, and is now in pos- 
session of the President Boyer. There is on it a 
handsome mansion, and some very respectable store- 
houses, a distillery, and a large number of very good 
cabins. The maxims of government adopted by 
Boyer, are in many respects totally opposed to 
those of Christophe : he neither compels labour by 
military coercion, nor holds out higher inducements of 
a pecuniary nature than his brother planters ; hence his 
estates, like theirs, are only half cultivated, and exhibit 



RETURN TO THE CAPE. 39 

signs of neglect. The guava bush covers what once 
were cane-fields, and diminished herds of cattle roam 
over the pastures. On reaching the handsome village 
of Morin, we dismounted at the Vicar's house ; he 
was not at home, but his sister, a Spanish lady, brought 
us out cassava, bread, and sweet cakes, and offered us 
wine and lemonade. Having rested a while in their 
spacious cool keeping-room, and taken a walk through 
the cemetery, we hastened on our journey homewards, 
fearful that the sun might set before we reached the 
Cape, and leave us in total darkness. The town of 
La Petite Anse stands on a bay that fronts the town of 
Cape Haytien. In passing through it, several groups 
of women and children respectably attired, some of them 
handsomely, came to the doors of their houses to greet 
us. We were much struck with their agreeable appear- 
ance; and that of the place in general. Devastation has 
done its work here in past days ; many of the buildings 
were set on fire, or destroyed by cannon, and are still 
in ruins, but many remain in a good condition. The 
road from Petite Anse to the Cape is on the shore, 
washed by the waters of that awful bay, where in the 
time of Le Clerc and Rochambeau, the French army 
made such a dreadful havoc of their prisoners of 
war, sending them out heavily ironed in boats and 
plunging them into the sea ! Many a sumptuous 
banquet of human flesh have the sharks enjoyed on this 
coast, and the sight of its waters is constantly recalling 
the horrors of those dreadful days. Can Europeans 
reproach Dessalines, Christophe, and their black annies 
with cruelty? Let them look at the conduct of 
their own savage military commanders, and see on 
which side cruelty the most predominates. How gladly 



40 REFLECTIONS ON SLAVERY. 

should we draw the curtain of night over transactions 
that disgraced the world ! W earied with our long 
day's excursion, gratified by what we had seen of the 
country and the people, but far from gratified with 
recitals which we heard, or which history, speaking to 
us on the very spots where dark deeds were done, 
recalled to our recollection ; we passed over the ferry 
which led to our lodgings, and retired to rest. 

On excursions of this kind, though not so long, we 
often set out accompanied by our friends from Boston, 
and explored the immediate environs of the Cape. We 
visited villages and solitary houses together on hill and 
plain, conversed with the common people whom w r e met 
on the road or at their own houses, looked at their pro- 
vision grounds and gardens, and obtained an acquaint- 
ance with their mode of life. A feeling of sympathy 
for the past wrongs of Hayti, and for the negro still 
held in unrighteous bondage in ^any parts of the 
western world, bound us together in a common cause, 
and a grateful companionship ; often did we congra- 
tulate each other on what we saw of the freedom and 
physical happiness of those who were once slaves in 
this land, but who are ojDpressed no longer. Nor did we 
omit often to advert to that debasing servitude in which 
millions of the negro race are still held in the United 
States, by a people calling themselves Christians, and 
boasting of their country as the freest on the earth ! 
What a mockery of religion was once the conduct of 
Great Britain towards the slaves in her colonies : what 
a mockery of religion is the present conduct of America ; 
and what a lie to the declaration of her federal consti- 
tution, that all men by nature are free and equal ! The 
single circumstance that we were all sincere haters of 



EDUCATION AT CAPE HAYTIEN. 41 

the abominable system of slavery in all its forms, and 
under every modification, ensured us a cordial reception 
in Hayti, and made our stay there, so far as it depended 
on the authorities, and the good wishes of the people, 
highly agreeable to us. 

One object of our continued stay at the Cape was to 
ascertain, as far as possible, the moral and religious 
state of the people there ; and with this view we visited 
the public and private schools, and sought interviews 
with the Romish priests and the few Protestant mis- 
sionaries, who from different parts of the country— from 
Port-au-Prince, Port-au-Platte, Samana, and from Turk's 
Island, of the Bahamas— had come there to hold their 
annual conference. The high school of Cape Haytien 
was founded by Christ ophe in 1816, and is conducted 
on the monitorial system : the lessons used are those of 
the Borough Road School, and the Scriptures without 
comment are used as a class-book. The master has a 
salary from the government of seventy Haytien dollars 
per month, equal in the present depreciated currency to 
=£63 sterling per annum, and is allowed the liberty of 
receiving a few private pupils on his own account, who 
pay him about fifty shillings each per annum for 
instruction. The average attendance of boys is 135 
daily, who are engaged in study seven hours a-day, 
during five days of the week. The pupils are well 
instructed in the common branches of learning, and are 
taught to think, to exercise the memory, and to behave 
politely. Some of the forwardest of the boys are 
taught the English language by a Creole professor who 
speaks it well. Children of African descent excel in 
the imitative arts, and hence they write a good hand ; 
the specimens of penmanship we saw in this school 



42 EDUCATION AT CAPE HAYTIEtf. 

were admirable. The management of it altogether — the 
quietness — the docility of the boys — their reading, and 
their compositions, would reflect credit on any institution 
of the sort in any country. Besides this school, there are 
in the city seven private schools for boys, averaging 
forty pupils each; and nine for girls, averaging fifteen 
each. There are also four professors, or tutors, who 
give lessons to about fifty children at their own homes. 
The total number of children of both sexes receiving 
education a^_the_Cape is about 550, or one-sixteenth of 
the entire population : about half as many in proportion 
to the population as receive education in the towns of 
Jamaica. The difference between these two islands in 
regard to education is very great. In Jamaica, schools 
are fast spreading over the whole country, and begin 
to act beneficially on the rural population ; in Hayti, 
they are confined exclusively to the towns, and in the 
country, where at least seven-eighths of the population 
is to be found, there is as much ignorance as in the 
days of slavery. 

The middle class among the citizens are exceedingly 
attached to stage entertainments. There is a public 
theatre at Cape Haytien, and so widely does the folly 
spread, that those schools are most encouraged in which 
the young people are taught to act plays. A sort of 
rehearsal takes place occasionally, and the parents and 
friends of the pupils attend to witness and applaud. 
But little religious instruction is imparted at the private 
schools, and that little is exclusively Roman Catholic. 
A large number of the men who live in the towns of 
Hayti, as is said to be the case in many other popish 
countries, are unbelievers ; the women attend mass 
frequently, and confession at least once in the year ; and 



RELIGION. - 43 

flock to the Cathedral on high days, attired in holiday- 
dresses, presenting a gay and attractive spectacle. The 
usual dress of the upper class of women on these occa- 
sions, is a handsome robe of chintz or white muslin, a 
turban handkerchief folded gracefully on the head, gold 
and pearl ornaments on the neck, silk stockings, and 
satin shoes. Gay silk parasols or umbrellas are their 
constant accompaniments. The dress of the men is very 
similar to that of England and France ; but persons in 
office, whether civil or military, frequently bear a gold- 
headed baton which they use as a walking-stick, or 
handle, with an air of official dignity. 

One Protestant missionary, and only one, is settled at 
the Cape : he, like all the rest of the Wesleyan persuasion, 
has a small congregation, and preaches alternately in 
French and English. The state of Protestantism is de- 
plorably low in every quarter of the island, the religious 
services of the missionaries, who are Englishmen, being 
chiefly attended by coloured people who emigrated from 
America, and were nominally Protestants before they 
came. The congregations at all the stations are small, 
and very little disposition is evinced by any class of the 
people to send their children to a Protestant school, even 
for gratuitous instruction. Satan, the grand deceiver, 
wears in this land of moral darkness a four-fold face — 
infidelity, ignorance, heathen superstition, and a religion 
(as taught by many of the priests) of folly and lies. 
One or other of these qualities may be said to frown in 
every quarter. The sight is appalling, but nothing will 
terrify the devoted follower of Christ, or deter him 
from endeavouring to convert his deluded fellow-men 
from blindness and error. The pure and peaceable prin- 
ciples of the gospel have won their way in regions 



44 RELIGION. 

darker than this, and will yet prevail even here. The 
influence and success of Protestant missions is not at 
first to be judged of by the number only of those per- 
sons who attend at a stated religious service. The 
missionary mixes with the people out of doors, con- 
verses familiarly with them, distributes tracts, bestows 
useful books, settles differences, and gives encourage- 
ment to the well-disposed : his wife helps him in his 
labour of love to the people, joins him in setting a good 
example, and shows many acts of kindness and assist- 
ance towards her own sex. Not putting their light 
under a bushel, but on a candlestick, they give light to 
their neighbours around them, and win them gradually 
to examine and see for themselves, what the root is from 
which these Christian virtues spring. Faith bids us 
to believe that true Christianity will yet make its way 
by its own resistless energy, and the blessing of its 
Divine Author, through every region of the globe. 

The government of Hayti assumes the power of 
appointing the priests to their respective cures, and of 
shifting them at pleasure from place to place. Some of 
the most respectable for character and learning are 
placed in the larger towns. The Cure of Cape Haytien 
is a Spaniard ; his assistant, or vicar, is a Frenchman — 
an Abbe by title, and a man of more than common 
endowments of mind. The latter ecclesiastic, obligingly 
made us a call soon after we landed; I gave him a 
copy of most of the publications we intended to distri- 
bute : he promised to look them over; had no objection, 
he said, to the propagation of any works which tended 
to promote our common Christianity, but must resist all 
books of a controversial nature, aimed point-blank at 
the Church of Rome. Our books were not generally of 



THE ABBE OF CAPE HAYTIEN. 4£> 

this sort, though strictly evangelical in their scope and 
tendency : some of them he recommended to his 
parishioners, and during our stay interdicted none of 
them. He frequently called on us, and we returned 
his visits. Our conversation turned on subjects of a 
moral and religious nature, connected with the welfare 
of the people. On one occasion, speaking of a book 
intended to illustrate the religious principles of the 
Society of Friends, he remarked, that they laid no stress 
on good works as the ground of our justification and 
acceptance with God, and that they admitted only one 
baptism as essential — that of the Holy Ghost and of 
fire ; on both these points he thought they were in 
error : on both the Catholic Church differed widely 
from them, and the Catholic Church, he presumed, 
was right. With regard to the first question, that of 
justification by works, I endeavoured to show him 
that this was the very point on which the reformation 
by Luther turned — that Protestants look to faith 
in Christ, a faith that works by love to the purifying 
of the heart, as the alone ground of a sinner's justifica- 
tion before God ; and that Roman Catholics, by adopting 
the opposite principle of salvation by works alone, make 
fallen man his own justifier and not Christ : so that by 
this system Christ may be said to have died in vain. 
With regard to water baptism, which the Church of 
Rome regarded as a sacrament, I argued that as the 
work of man's purification could be effected only by 
the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit, which was the 
washing of regeneration, " the baptism that now saves," 
according to the testimony of the Apostle Peter himself, 
and as the Friends admitted this baptism in all its 
fulness as essential, subscribing to it ex animo^ he must 
not place them out of the pale of Christianity, because 



46 THE ABBE OF CAPE HAYTIEN. 

they differed from him in a ceremonial rite. He allowed, 
with regard to justification, that he had not so entirely 
made up his mind as to refuse to re-consider the ques- 
tion, and promised to come again and renew our 
discourse. Before we quitted this part of Hayti we 
called to take leave of him, and found him reading 
Barthe's Annates de L'eglise^ a copy of which we had 
given him. He said he saw no reason why the holy 
Scriptures should be interdicted to the laity ; and was 
so far touched with a feeling of protestantism, that he 
requested me to give him an introduction to the Paris 
Bible Society, and consented at last to allow me to 
order for him fifty copies of De Sacy's French Bible, 
an approved Roman Catholic version, and two hundred 
copies of his New Testament for a beginning distribu- 
tion among his flock. The Abbe is a man of polished 
exterior, speaks elegant French, and from having lived 
much in Paris, and mixing evidently with good society, 
is an interesting, agreeable companion. He gave us at 
parting his hearty benediction in the few expressive 
words, Dieu vous protege. 

The books which we brought for distribution made a- 
great noise ; we were, in fact, so besieged by applica- 
tions for them, that we began to fear our hostess would 
look upon our vocation, as a nuisance. There are no 
booksellers' shops in the city ; the few works that are 
sold are disposed of at the general stores, and consist 
chiefly of dictionaries and other school books, with a 
few Romish prayer books, and fabulous church legends. 

The time which we had proj)osed to stay at Cape 
Haytien having drawn to a close, we made application 
to General Bottex for a passport, and made preparations 
for a jonrney by land to the town of Gonaives, on the 
western coast of the island. 



DEPARTURE FROM CAPE HAYTIEN. 47 



CHAPTER IV. 

DEPARTURE FROM CAPE HAYTIEN JOURNEY TO GONAIVES 

TOWN AND COMMERCE OF GONAIYES — COASTING 

VOYAGE TO PORT-AU-PRINCE. 

Having made a bargain with one of the citizens for 
two good saddle horses, together with a sumpter horse 
to carry our little baggage, and a servant to attend us : 
we despatched our other effects by sea, and waited the 
hour of departure. For the accommodation thus agreed 
on, we paid eighty Haytien dollars, or £6 sterling; it 
being stipulated that we should make the journey to 
Gonaives in two days, and that the servant should feed 
himself, and take care of the horses by the way. The 
distance was seventy miles. But, alas ! for bargains ; 
and, alas ! for carefully made arrangements in a strange 
land, and among a people of strange tongues. The 
servant confided to us as an honest man and good guide, 
spoke a barbarous Creole dialect, half French, half 
African ; and his only object being to save a few dollars 
for himself, he would have half-starved the poor horses, 
if we had not discovered his trickery, and bought grass 
for them out of our own purse. Being well mounted 
ourselves, on animals that we had tried before : we set 
out in good spirits, and soon outstripped our lazy 
attendant. Our journey for the first six leagues to 
Limbe, was over the Plaine du Nord, by a grand 
broad road, flanked for a great part of the way on 



48 THE TOWN OF LIMBE. 

each side by plantations and well cultivated provision 
grounds. The houses on the plantations, once inhabited 
by the owners, were nearly all in ruins, and the estates 
much neglected ; the outbuildings also were much 
dilapidated. We passed on the edge of the fine estate 
where Toussaint L'Ouverture was born, and from 
which he made his escape when a slave, to lend a hand 
to the rebel troops. On ascending the hill which led 
to Limbe, we had a beautiful view of the river, the 
bay, the ocean; the country was wonderfully pictu- 
resque and afforded us delight. The town of Limbe is 
situated on rather high ground, and consists principally 
of two long streets and a public square. The inhabi- 
tants are about five hundred, chiefly small freeholders, 
subsisting on the produce of their own grounds. The 
houses are better than the common huts of plantations, 
plaster-built, wattled, and thatched, and stand apart 
from each other, having many of them a small garden 
attached, in which were bread-fruit trees, orange trees, 
plantains, and bananas. One of these gardens, three 
hundred feet by sixty-five, yields the owner a large 
supply of provisions and small vegetables, and three 
hundred pounds of coffee annually. We called on 
Colonel Cincinatti, the Commandant, who received us 
very politely. This military officer was once chamber- 
lain to King Henry Christophe, and possessed the 
manners of a courtier. Kindly offering my wife his 
arm, he conducted us through the place, showed us all 
that was worthy of observation; and invited us to make 
free use of his dwelling-house as long as we should 
think proper to stay. We thanked him for his 
proffered hospitality ; but were obliged to take leave at 
an early hour. Our servant whom we had left behind 



CAMP COQ. 49 

reached the town before we left it; but finding that 
no dependence could be placed on his keeping up with 
us, we engaged a new guide, and pressed on to Camp 
Coq, a village situated in a defile of the mountains, 
three leagues distant. We saw numerous habitations 
by the road-side, and abundant indications of a rising 
and thriving population. We met several groups of 
people; women riding on horseback like men, and 
many naked children. The men of Hayti pass much 
of their time in sauntering, idling, talking, and playing 
games of chance or skill : some we saw stretched out 
at their ease under the shade of trees; others were 
sitting on chairs and stools in the open air, as if they 
had nothing to do, and were only desiring to kill time. 
Mos£ of the women were pretty well dressed; but many 
of the men, like others we had seen at the Cape, were 
clothed in a ragged military uniform, which had done 
its service on parade, and was thought too good to be 
thrown away. We had taken the precaution on leaving 
the Cape to pack up a cold roasted fowl, on which, with 
an omelet prepared by a cottager, and a cup of coffee, 
we had breakfasted by the way ; but the evening drew 
near, and we wanted dinner. The village of Camp 
Coq is the only convenient resting-place between Cape 
Haytien and Gonaives ; and here, according to informa- 
tion given us, we expected to find good entertainment 
and handsome lodging. On reaching the place, our 
guide stopped short at a poor hut, got off his horse and 
told us to dismount. " We are not going to stop here," 
said I, '• this cannot be the house." " Oui Monsieur, 
c'est ici que demeure Madame Babilliers." There was 
no alternative ; we had really arrived at the far-famed 
tavern, and reluctantly entering, prepared to pitch our 



50 CAMP COQ. 

tent for the night. Our saddles were removed, and 
the horses turned out to grass : we paid off the guide, 
and ordered our evening meal. Our hostess, poor as was 
the house she lived in, really understood her business, 
and made us welcome. In about two hours, we sat down 
at a table covered with a nice clean table-cloth, nap- 
kins and silver plate, to a good dinner, consisting of 
soup, stewed fowl, rice, yams, and plantains, and graced 
with a bottle of claret wine. The next point of con- 
sideration was the lodging : this was less suited to our 
taste and wishes. The hut was divided into three 
apartments : the middle was the dining room, with a 
clay floor worn into deep holes : the two sides were 
portioned off as lodging-rooms by thin walls, that 
reached to within a few feet of the naked thatched roof, 
and afforded ample room for scorpions, lizards, and 
snakes. The mattress for visitors was good and clean. 
We had scarcely retired to seek such rest as the place 
might afford, when there came up to the house a troop 
of travellers, to claim, like ourselves, the benefit of a 
night's shelter — twenty men, women, and children, with 
a number of loaded asses. Nothing dismayed, and 
thinking only of the small gratuity she should receive 
for each, the good lady, our hostess, took them all in. 
The asses were tethered near the door, or let loose on 
the common : some of the men laid themselves down 
in the piazza with a slight covering over them: the 
rest of the company, of both sexes, spreading mats on 
the dining-room floor, sought repose there. Before 
attempting to sleep, they lighted some candle wood, 
smoked tobacco out of short pipes, talked, laughed, and 
sung, and were very merry. The asses brayed, and till 
about midnight we could get no rest ; between that 



SINGULAR GROUP. 51 

time and early cock-crow we obtained some sleep, and 
then rose to pursue our journey. It was three o'clock, 
and our departure gave rise to a general commotion : 
coffee was prepared for us at a side table ; and to reach 
it we had to pass over, or through, the medley crowd of 
lodgers on the floor. Some of the women sprang up, 
lighted candle wood, as on the evening before, and 
began to smoke; others lifted themselves up with a 
sort of laughing astonishment, to gaze on as we sipped 
the coffee, and to hear us give directions for the journey. 
Our new guide, whom we had hired the day before, 
stood by, with a long sword girt close to his side. The 
most comical part of the scene was to come. We had 
looked at the drowsy visitors coiled up on the floor, 
and observed the singular effect of a dull light on 
dusky skins with some amusement ; but presently, our 
landlady, who had been very attentive to us, came up 
to the coffee stand, to present her bill. I drew out my 
purse, and gave her a small gold coin and some of the 
debased silver coin of the country. She had probably 
never looked on a piece of gold before, and evidently 
wondered what it could mean : I explained its value, 
and my statement was confirmed by a stander by : she 
looked at it on both sides, turned it over, and over, and 
over again : her very soul seemed fixed on the coin, as 
though it was meant to deceive her ; and at last, utterly 
incredulous as to its worth, she refused to take it, and 
returned it into my hands.. What a subject was here 
for the pencil of a Rembrandt ! The light of two 
candles concentrated on a yellowish bronze face worked 
up by the spirit of covetousness, from a fear of losing 
its due, and a group of people, old and young, white, 
black, brown, and yellow, standing, sitting, or lying 

d 2 



52 PICTURESQUE SCENERY. 

around, in a dull, dusky cabin. Our baggage, which 
contained a bundle of dollar notes, was already packed 
up ; we opened it again, took out some paper, and left 
it with her to her heart's content. 

We were now at liberty to take leave of Camp Coq, 
and again mounted our horses. Our company was now 
five persons : my wife and I, our servant from the Cape, 
a friend of his whom he had picked up by the way, and 
a guide, who knew the neighbourhood, and could conduct 
us in the dark. Confidence in the common people of 
Hayti is rarely or never misplaced; strangers may travel 
in every part of the country, night and day, without 
dan o-er of being robbed or molested. Our journey led 
us through mountain streams, over rocky and rugged 
ground : the stars afforded us sufficient light where no 
tall trees overshadowed the road; but we came to several 
passes where bamboos had been planted on both sides, 
which, bending down, formed a dense-arched canopy 
over our heads, and made the road as dark as a railway 
tunnel. Through avenues of this sort the river in 
some places flowed : the bottom of the stream was 
stony, and it seemed hardly safe for my wife to venture 
through on horseback, lest a false step of the animal 
should plunge her in the water : at these spots, there- 
fore, one of the black guides took her in his arms, and 
w T aded with her to the opposite bank, leaving another 
to conduct the horse ; and thus by dint of patience, 
courage, and confidence, we got safely along, and met 
with no disaster. 

At sun-rise a morning mist veiled the sides of the 
mountains, and filled the valleys like a mighty river : 
the summits of the hills were clothed with luxuriant 
vegetation ; but the gorges between, and the villages 



TOWN OF PLAISANCE. 53 

scattered on their slopes were hid from view ; as 
day advanced, and the snn increased in power, the 
mists gradually disappeared : clonds of vapour rolled 
up the mountains, dissolving above them into thin 
air; the banana, the cabbage palm, the tree fern, and 
the graceful bamboo disclosed their beautiful forms ; 
huts and provision grounds emerged to view ; and 
sheep, goats, and cattle, seemed suddenly to spring into 
existence and to gladden the green fields. The air 
was sufficiently cool to allow of active exercise; and 
descrying, from the top of a hill, the town of Plaisance 
at about a league distant ; we set off at a brisk canter,, 
to reach it as soon as possible to obtain a wished-for 
breakfast. On arriving, we inquired for a place of 
entertainment, and found, to our dismay, that there was 
none in the place : the only alternative, therefore, was 
to throw ourselves on the charity of some good house- 
holder, and to send the guides on a scamping expedition 
to procure forage for the horses. One of the public 
officers, a sort of deputy-major, kindly received us, and 
desired his wife to prepare us eggs, coffee, bread and 
milk. Entertainments of this sort, though highly 
welcome to travellers, are more expensive than the 
common and better repasts of an inn or boarding-house ; 
as the mistress looks for a consideration far exceedino- 
the value of the benefit conferred on her guests. 

We here paid our respects to the black general, Dubat; 
and after surveying the market, and calling at a few 
houses to converse with the inhabitants, we proceeded on 
our route with a new guide ; leaving the servant, with 
his friend and the baggage to follow. The mountains of 
Plaisance, about 3000 feet in height, have many attrac- 
tions of climate and scenery : they abound in small coffee 



54 PASS OF LES ESCALIERS. 

plantations; the palm and fem-trees grow luxuriantly 
tall ; and fruit trees are abundant. The commune, (or 
parish) of Plaisance gave a title in Christophe's days to 
one of his dukes. The road which hitherto had been 
good, soon after leaving the town, became narrow, steep 
and stony ; giving warning of our approach to the far- 
famed and magnificent pass of Les Escaliers ; the ladder 
or staircase descent which leads to the plains below. On 
arriving at the brow of the mountain, we looked down 
on a long, steep, smooth road, paved with flat stones, 
many of them broad like a London pavement, and from 
constant wear become almost as slippery as glass itself. 
A mule of the Andes would look at such a pass for a 
few moments, place its fore feet in a right position, 
adjust its body to its burden, give a loud snort, and 
slide down with rapidity. Our horses were not suited 
to this sort of enterprise, and we had no courage for 
the feat. What should we do? There was another 
road winding through the lower country, longer by four 
leagues ; this seemed too far : we therefore resolved to 
go on, taking all chances, and dismounting, led the 
horses as well as we could, and with a little sliding, but 
without a fall or bruise, brought them safely down the 
steep. Truly thankful were we at last to find our- 
selves once more on secure ground. The sides of this 
strange road are defended, in many places, by massive 
granite rocks, and adorned in others by magnificent forest 
trees and deep woods. The scenery is grand, but the 
way perilous. To strangers circumstanced as we were, 
with horses not absolutely to be depended upon as sure- 
footed, the only alternative was to dismount and walk ; 
the thought that we escaped danger by doing so, served 
to keep up our spirits, and enabled us to endure the toil. 



PASS OF LES ESCALIERS. OO 

We now look back on our descent of Les Escaliers 
with vivid pleasure; but we had to pay for it at 
the time by a sense of weariness that left us less able 
to cope with the fatigues that followed. The day 
was sultry : a vertical sun beamed full on our heads, 
and there was no place of entertainment or shelter near. 
At length, after several hours of toil, we came to a good 
looking habitation, enclosed by wooden fences ; and 
we turned in to solicit food and rest. The first object 
that met our view was a naked mulatto girl, hard at 
work in the broiling sun, pounding cassava in a huge 
mortar with a wooden pellett. On remonstrating with 
the mistress, who ought to have known better than to 
allow it, she excused herself by stating that the girl 
was not her s, but the daughter of one of her servants, 
who lived on the premises ; and on speaking to the latter, 
the subject was turned off with such stupid indifference, 
as to allow us no room to hope for improvement. 
Many of the Haytien mothers appear utterly dead to 
all moral considerations, and leave their children to grow 
up as they please, the victims of wayward passion, and 
of conduct without restraint. The government hasjDrp- 
vided no schools for boys, except in the larger towns, 
and for girls no where. What can be expected from 
a people without religion, and without education ? 
The owner of this property was a mulatto wom an of 
middle age, apparently uneducated, who entertained a 
strong prejudice against the blacks; and lamented that 
the President could not be induced to pass a law for 
compelling them to work. There is an aristocracy of 
the skin, even in Hayti, where all the institutions are 
founded on the principle of putting it down. This 
springs from the pride and tyranny of the old French 



56 ROAD TO GONAIVES. 

colonists ; and it is one of the cruel legacies bequeathed 
by slavery. 

Having eaten a scanty meal, and payed for it hand- 
somely, we rode on to " La coupe de pentarde" — the 
guinea fowl defile — so named from the multitudes of 
wild guinea fowls that inhabit this part of the island, 
and afford game to the Haytien sportsmen. At this 
spot, the view is wide and extensive, and highly 
interesting. A range of naked chalk hills extends 
right and left in a curved direction to the sea ; embracing 
a well wooded plain, of about twelve miles in depth, 
traversed by broad roads leading to Gonaives, St. Mark, 
and their neighbouring villages. The shipping of 
Gonaives and the islands of the ocean beyond are visible; 
and every thing bespeaks a numerous population and an 
advancing civilization. It was market-day at Gonaives : 
hundreds of people had passed us within the last two 
hours ; wending their way homeward to the high moun- 
tains : the sight surprised us, and seeing other groups 
in the distance, we began to count the people. Before 
entering the town itself, we had passed in all four 
hundred and sixty-five persons, with nearly as many 
horses, mules, and asses, drawing light carriages, or 
loaded with commodities, which the peasantry were 

j carrying back, in return for the small parcels of cotton 
and coffee which they had carried to market. The 
women, as usual, were decently dressed ; and the men 

f were more respectable in appearance than any we had 
seen on our route : they were evidently small cultivators 
who Hye on their own freeholds. All seemed cheerful and 
happy. It was one of the most cheering sights we saw 
in Hayti ; and we could not but contrast it with those 
dark and terrible days, when slave proprietors, under the 



ROAD TO GONAIVES. 57 

French dominion, oppressed the people with intolerable 
hardships ; and inflicted cruelties too horrible to relate. 
In this very region, within the memory of many living 
witnesses, Deodune^ a cotton planter, buried some of his 
slaves in the earth as deep as their shoulders, and to 
satisfy his revenge, or for devilish amusement, rolled 
stones at their heads till they died ! The rest of his 
slaves then rose, and in indignation put the monster 
himself to death. 

So hot *was the day, and so wearisome the toil of 
riding, that we journeyed only at a foot pace : our guide, 
who had walked with us from Plaisance, his sword 
girded at his side, tripped nimbly along ; performing his 
part of the journey, about thirty miles, with ease and 
alacrity, often outstripping us on the road. The last few 
miles of the plain proved excessively toilsome to us ; my 
wife kept up her spirits tolerably well ; but I scarcely 
knew how to sit my horse ; and, what added to our 
trials, we entered the long town of Gonaives without 
knowing where we should find a resting-place. No inn 
or tavern, or public boarding-house to be heard of ! We 
had been told of an English merchant who resided there ; 
to his house, therefore, we made our way, and to our 
great joy were cordially received as guests by himself ? 
his wife, and daughter. The servant had not yet arrived 
with the baggage ; but our new friends supplied all our 
need out of their own wardrobe ; and after plentiful 
washings, and an excellent evening meal, we retired to 
a sumptuous lodging-room to rest. 

The next day was the first of the week — the Christian 
Sabbath. There were only two Protestant families in 
the place, one of which was that of our hospitable host, 
James Ostler from Cornwall, who in the morning of that 

d3 



58 GONAIVES. 

day reads the service of the Church of England in his 
own parlour. The Roman Catholics had lost their 
priest, who was gone from home, and there was no one 
to fill his place. Here, therefore, was a town of 5000 
inhabitants, in which no public worship of any kind was 
performed ; except that some of the women, and perhaps 
a few men, as is common in Catholic countries, entered 
the parish church to cross themselves with holy water, 
count their beads, and say their prayers. Several of 
the respectable inhabitants paid us a visit during the 
day ; to whom, as well as to others before we left, we 
gave religious books and tracts ; which, from the influ- 
ence they exercise, and from their imposing no money- 
tax on the people, a woman at the Cape was pleased to 
designate as " Les petits predicateurs qui ni mangent ni 
boivmt" Among them were publications of the Paris 
Religious Tract Society ; Lives of pious individuals, 
Barthe's Annals of the Christian Church and Bunyans 
Pilgrim's Progress, all in French ; and a variety of little 
works to illustrate and to explain the principles of the 
Society of Friends on Christian doctrine, slavery, and 
war. Bibles and Testaments were asked for, which I 
promised to send from Port-au-Prince. Our servant not 
arriving with the baggage, and notice having reached 
us that his horse had broken down on the rough road 
near Les Escaliers, twenty miles behind us ; we engaged 
a man and horse to go in quest of him, and direct him 
to take back the saddle horses we had hired of his 
master, and to send us the baggage which he held in 
charge. Late at night, as we were about retiring to 
rest, the aforesaid servant, to our astonishment, made 
his appearance; the wicked fellow had refused to de- 
liver up the baggage to another, on the plea, that he 



gonaives, 59 

was bound to deliver it with his own hands ! He had, 
therefore, urged on his broken-down steed, and brought 
back our horses, making a journey to the latter of forty 
long miles, and bringing them in at an hour of the 
night when no grass or provender could be procured. 
Our very hearts sunk within us at the thought of 
three horses, jaded with toil, exhausted and hungry, 
condemned to pass a wearisome night without food: 
and we could not help bitterly reproaching him for his 
grievous misconduct. He received the reprimand very 
stupidly : his whole thoughts seemed to be wrapped up 
in a promise I had made him, that if he brought us 
safely to Gonaives, I would make him a small present. 
To gain this trifling douceur, he had ventured to 
torment three poor dumb animals with a long and 
painful journey — not feeding them by the way — and to 
run the risk of starving them for at least ten hours 
longer. The morning came, and by dint of solicitation, 
we procured a few bundles of juicy reeds, (no grass 
could be found) and when the horses had eaten these 
and drank some water, he turned their heads homeward, 
and led them away. He deserved nothing but reproof, 
or to have been led before a magistrate : but I crave him 
two Haytien dollars and sent, by a private hand, a 
letter to his master to expose his misconduct. Our 
host believed that he and his companion had broken 
down the poor baggage horse by alternately riding him. 
The circumstance taught me this lesson, which every 
traveller in Hayti would do well to observe ; that is, 
never to keep in advance of the guide, nor lose sight of 
your baggage ; but always to keep the train before you, 
however slow you may be compelled to travel, 

The town of Gonaives, where we were now located. 



60 GONAIVES. 

is situated at the head of a small bay on the western 
shore : the houses are mostly of wood, and of one story; 

. the streets are long, with a large square in the centre, 
on one side of which stands the parish church, now in 
ruins. It has a good harbour for shipping, and a noble 
convenient quay, where logs of mahogany lie piled up 
in great quantities. The exports of the place are 
cotton, coffee, mahogany, and salt. The annual exports 
of coffee, coastwise and abroad, average about four 
millions and a half of pounds' weight annually ; those 
of cotton, including the district of St. Mark, more than 
a million of pounds ; and those of mahogany, 800,000 
feet. There is, of course, a custom-house, but its officers 
are badly paid, and till lately were notorious smugglers. 
The chief receives little more than £J0 sterling, per 

■ annum. The revenue of Hayti is mainly derived from 
duties on articles imported and exported. It was 
formerly the common practice of the officers, in concert 
with such of the merchants as were willing to enter into 
their schemes, to falsify the custom-house returns, and 
to enrich themselves at the government expense. No 
pains were taken to remedy the abuse, till the honest 
merchants, who refused to encourage a c^ntoband^com- 
merce, became loud in their complaints : the President 
then interfered to put a stop to the evil. The salaries 
of the officers, however, owing to the depreciated paper 
currency in which they are paid, are still wretchedly 
inadequate. The two great shipping ports for mahogany 
timber, are Gonaives and Santo Domingo. The mahogany 
shipped from this part of Hayti grows on the moun- 
tains, about a hundred miles in the interior; in a part of 
the island which once belonged to Spain. A merchant 
residing at Gonaives, or at the great salt works, (Les 



MAHOGANY CUTTING. 61 

grandes salines,) at the mouth of the Artibonite, goes to 
a tract of land where the trees are in maturity ; and 
bargains with the proprietor for, perhaps, a whole forest, 
at a given price per tree. He then has his oxen driven 
to the spot, and engages a band of wood-cutters — men 
who live in these districts, and devote themselves to 
wood-cutting as their only employment. In the last 
quarter of the moon the hatchet begins its work ; the 
forest rings with the sound, and mighty trees fall pros- 
trate. The merchant, attended by some workmen, skilful 
to discover flaws, or to find out unsound timber, then 
perambulates the woods ; makes his selection of all the 
good trees ; has them cleared of the superfluous branches; 
and directs their removal : they are then dragged by 
thirty or forty oxen to the bed of the nearest mountain 
stream, and left for the floods to roll down. This drag- 
ging of trees through the forest, and over hill and dale, 
is represented as being an extremely arduous, toilsome, 
dangerous, and costly work ; occasioning immense per- 
sonal labour, and the loss of much cattle, who are either 
bruised or die from exhaustion. The mountain streams 
are nearly dry the greater part of the year ; but when 
swelled with the rains, they become deep and rapid, and 
carry down the timber first to La petite riviere, and 
thence to the Artibonite which flows into the ocean. 
On these streams and rivers, dams are constructed at 
different places to arrest the timber : there are dwellings 
where men reside who form it into rafts, beginning 
with a few logs only, and going on increasing their 
bulk, till they reach the mouth of the Artibonite ; 
where they are made into floating rafts of great size, 
and towed by sailing vessels to the port of embarkation. 
Extraordinary pains are taken to arrest the mahogany 



62 INFLUENCE OF THE MOON, 

in its downward course ; but much of the heaviest and 
best timber sinks in the deep rivers ; and, with all the 
care bestowed at the different stages of its progress, a 
large proportion is necessarily lost in its outlet to the sea. 
Much of the drift, borne out to the ocean, is recovered 
on the coast, or not far from land, and is restored to 
the owner on the payment of salvage; but the mer- 
chant lays his account with the definitive loss of one 
tree in ten. The large sea-rafts are bound together by 
strong iron chains ; and the vessels that tow them, being 
often numerous and crowding all the sail they can carry", 
give at the full season an animated appearance to the 
bay and harbour. 

Our host at Gonaives, who is an extensive maho- 
gany merchant, told us, that when he began his career 
he laughed at the mountain people for cutting down 
their trees at a particular period of the moon. He 
ordered some stout timber to be felled when the moon 
was at the full, but soon found reason to repent his 
folly ; it had not lain long on the ground before it began 
to split of its own accord, and at last burst asunder 
with a noise that resembled the firing of cannon ! How- 
ever inexplicable to philosophy the fact may be, the 
moon has an undoubted and extraordinary influence 
both on the animate and inanimate creation. Different 
maladies are known to spring from sleeping in the 
moonbeams in the tropical regions ; and sometimes, to 
persons of weakly temperament, from merely travelling 
by moonlight. Many well authenticated cases of suf- 
fering from this cause were related to us ; which served 
to confirm the declaration of the Psalmist, that not 
only does the sun smite by day, but the moon by night. 
As soon as the mahogany rafts are stranded on -the 



MAHOGANY CUTS. 63 

shore, the merchant again examines and marks his tim- 
ber, rejecting the unsound logs; the ends of the wood, 
which are often inferior, and, which, owing to the high 
duty in this country, are not suited to the English 
market are cut off, and sent to the United States ; 
where such wood is admitted duty free, and where 
it is worked up into cheap furniture. The best and 
heaviest logs are measured, branded, valued, and shipped 
chiefly to London and Liverpool. A whole forest of 
mahogany in the high mountains has sometimes been 
purchased at a dollar a tree; the present price of an 
extensive cut is about three dollars a tree. Logs are 
often selected which readily sell in London for £100 
sterling* My friend, James Ostler, shipped one from 
Gonaives, that measured 1600 feet, which was sold at 
2s. 6^d. per foot, and realized him more than £200. 
Millions of lance wood spars, might be exported from 
this country ; but they are said to be too heavy to float 
on the rivers, and land carriage would be too expensive. 
The Haytien government forbids the cutting down of 
any timber adapted to ship-building, except for the 
ships of Hayti ; and as Hayti has no ships of her own, 
but a few brigs and sloops, her large forests of oak and 
bayone, del maria, and cancagou woods, (the latter of 
which is harder and heavier than mahogany,) are suffered 
to go to decay. The palma christi plant grows every- 
where in this region, and yields a large quantity of 
common castor oil, which sells at two shillings the 
gallon. Salt is made in large quantities on the sea- 
shore at Les gr ancles salines ; and furnishes a supply for 
the whole island. The plains in this neighbourhood 
are well adapted to the growth of cotton; the average 
price of which in large quantities for shipment is 



64 BAXANA GROVES — NEW TESTAMENTS. 

three-pence sterling per pound. Almost all the cotton 
exported from Hayti is grown here ; and so numerous 
are the small parcels of it which are sent to market from 
time to time by the cultivators, that as many as four 
thousand horses and asses. laden chiefly with this article, 
and with coffee, have been counted at G-onaives in a 
single day. In the vicinity of this commercial town are 
some banana and plantain groves, belonging to a mer- 
chant's family, which we visited much to our gratification. 
From the great height of the trees, and from the vast 
spreading of their leaves, we could walk at noon-day. 
delightfully sheltered from the beams of the sun. A 
bunch of plantains or bananas, when the fruit is mature. 
is a fine object as it hangs pendant from the upper 
branches : this fruit forms part of the staple food of the 
country, and seems to be more relished than any other. 
Among the few families to whom we were introduced 
at this place, was that of the British Vice-Consul. 
M'Gufne. a Scotchman by birth, who received us with 
much kindness and hospitality. He told us that thirteen 
years ago, in 1827 or 1828 3 twenty-six case- of New 
Testaments, French and English in parallel columns. 
which had been seized, on the fall of Christophe. by 
President Boyer. were sold, by auction, at Port-au-Prince. 
and bought by a merchant at rive cents or two-pence- 
halfpenny a copy. These were -hipped under the care 
nf the Vice-Consul himself, to St. Thomas', as part of a 
commercial speculation, to be disposed of by De Castra 
and Wjs; who wondered and laughed at the trans- 
action. Who among all their numerous customers in 
the Carribean islands would ever think of asking for 
New Testaments? The Vice-Consul recommended them 
try the market at Martinique, or some other of the 



CHRISTOPHE. 65 

French islands, but never beard afterwards what bad 
become of them. These books had been sent over, a 
long time before, by some philanthropists of England, for 
use in the schools of Hayti, and ought not to have been 
impounded and sold by the new government. Repeated 
applications are said to have been made for the value of 
them, but no answer was returned to the applicants. 
The public school at Gonaives, during our stay there, was 
in abeyance for want of a suitable master ; or from the 
unwillingness at head -quarters to furnish the needful 
salary for his support. Several of the inhabitants com- 
plained of the neglect. We left them two sets of 
reading lessons for its use when it may be re-opened; 
and promised to solicit the authorities at Port-au-Prince 
to send them a well-qualified master without delay. 
Before taking a final leave of this interesting place, for 
such, in some respects, it proved to us, let us for a 
moment, revert once again to the memory of Christophe. 
Our friend, the British merchant, knew him intimately ; 
and, as his immediate agent, carried on for him a trad e 
with Bourdeaux in sug ar and coffee; bringing back 
French wines, and other commodities and luxuries for 
his private consumption. He thought him honourable 
in his dealings ; but, as a ruler, excessively capricious 
and tyrannical. He well remembered the five justices 
of Cape Haytien who had given a decision that dis- 
pleased the King ; and saw them return from the citadel, 
where they had been sentenced to hard labour, in 
common working dresses, covered with lime dust. A 
man, professing himself to be a prophet, was about the 
same time thrown into a lime-kiln and burnt alive; the 
King intimating that he must have been an impostor, or 
he would have seen his own fate and avoided it ! 



66 VOYAGE BY SEA. 

It was our wish on leaving Gonaives to have pro- 
ceeded by land, to Port-au-Prince, the capital, a hundred 
miles distant ; but, independently of the difficulty 
of procuring suitable horses and servants, we were 
discouraged from taking this step, by learning that the 
road, for much of the distance, lay along the naked sea- 
shore ; that we should pass only through the single town 
of St. Mark ; and perhaps should be compelled to lodge 
one night in the open air, or to put up with the meanest 
accommodations in some poor hut, where we should 
scarcely find sufficient or proper food. Looking at ail 
the circumstances, and being told in addition, that the 
country was far inferior in picturesque beauty, to that 
we had already travelled, we resolved to proceed by sea. 
A coasting sloop, loaded with coffee, was ready to sail, 
and we took our passage. Our very kind hostess and 
her family furnished us with a mattress ; and sent on 
board for us a liberal supply of cold roasted fowl, eggs, 
bread, and bananas. "We stipulated for the exclusive 
use of the narrow cabin to ourselves. 

At ten o'clock, the moon shining bright, we left the 
harbour with a good land breeze ; and, soon after spread- 
ing the mattress on the deck, we lay down to rest, taking 
the precaution to cover our faces with the folds of our 
cloaks. A fellow-passenger, afraid like ourselves of the 
moon-beams, stretched himself in the ship's boat, and 
covered his head as well as his body with a blanket. 
Early the next morning, we passed the famous salt 
works, at the mouth of the Artibonite; and at noon 
were off St. Mark, which lay deep in the bay and was 
scarcely visible. This town contains 2000 inhabitants, 
besides a numerous garrison ; and is governed by a 
mayor, the only white man, we believe, who holds a 



VOYAGE BY SEA. 67 

place of authority in the island. We had the pleasure 
of making acquaintance with this functionary at the 
capital; and learned from himself that he owes this 
mark of distinction to the friendship of the President ; 
who, when an exile in the United States, received 
[ attentions from his father's family. The law of Hayti, 
j which forbids a white man to hold land, to exercise 
i authority, to marry a Haytien woman, or to trade 
without a special licence, was relaxed in his favour : he 
was permitted to marry the daughter of General 
Bonnett, the commander of the district, and to exercise 
all the rights of a Haytien citizen. No produce is 
exported from St. Mark direct to foreign countries ; all 
its trade is coastwise. It is said to be a handsome 
town, built after the fashion of France, and to be in- 
habited by some respectable and rather wealthy families. 
Dessalines had his palace in the vicinity, and made it 
his chief military post. The wind, which was fair at 
our setting out, and which we had hoped would have 
borne us to Port-au-Prince in twenty-four hours, 
changed its course, and blew strongly a-head; we 
were, consequently, under the necessity of constantly 
tacking, and had the trial and mortification of rolling 
three nights on the deep, instead of one. To beat up 
against a head wind is painful in any latitude, and in 
any craft ; but the miseries of a sea-life are, perhaps, 
best appreciated by those who, in such circum- 
stances, are confined to a small sloop under the fierce 
beams of a vertical sun, without a cabin that can be 
used as a shelter, and without canvass for an awning. 
The steam from the coffee was so offensive, that we 
could not go below deck, and we had only an umbrella 
for defence. It was a great mercy to be preserved from 



68 ARRIVAL AT PORT-AU-PRINCE. 

violent sickness ; and we were not wholly without 
amusement. The coast was interesting to us from its 
novelty ; and so was the large island of Gonave, and the 
islets called the Archadyines ; among which we kept 
beating up and down for several hours. Necessity 
reconciled us to our unpleasant imprisonment. The 
wished for port at length came in sight, but our trials 
were not yet ended. Our captain was an ignorant man 
and had so imperfect a knowledge of his art, that he 
twice suffered us to be run upon by a larger vessel en- 
tering the harbour under full sail : the first shock was 
fearful, and there was much reason to fear we should go 
down ; the second was less alarming, but still so serious, 
that we were no longer satisfied to remain on board : 
the vessel had received injury, and we begged to be 
sent on shore in an open boat. We at length arrived 
safely at Port-au-Prince, with no other inconvenience 
than that of a slight inflammation of the eyes, from the 
reflection of a burning sun, and a small degree of sick- 
ness, which left us soon after we landed. 



PORT-AU-PRINCE. 69 



CHAPTER V. 

CITY OF PORT-AU-PRINCE — THE ABBE D'ECHEVERRIA 

SCHOOLS PRISON JURISPRUDENCE INTERVIEW 

WITH THE PRESIDENT. 

The stranger on first landing at Port-au-Prince, trie 
capital of Hayti, feels greatly disappointed. Instead of 
a handsome city, such as it appears from the ship's 
deck at sea, rising on a gradual elevation from the 
shore, and adorned with good houses and gardens ; you 
enter into streets of wooden buildings, with the pave- 
ment dislocated or broken up, the drains neglected, and 
filth and stable dung interrupting your steps in every 
direction. The quay is spacious, but the water is 
shallow near the shore ; and all sorts of uncleanness are 
suffered to annoy the senses. A constant malaria is the 
consequence, which at certain seasons of the year, 
renders the lower quarter of the city very sickly, and 
occasions much mortality among the sailors from foreign 
ports. Port-au-Prince, with all its advantages of situa- 
tion, with every inherent capability of being made and 
kept delightfully clean, is perhaps the filthiest capital 
in the world. The houses in general are of two 
stories, built slightly of wood, to avoid the rend and 
tear occasioned by earthquakes, which at different times 
have nearly demolished the city. Some few of the 
better habitations are of brick or stone, and may be 
called handsome edifices. The senate-house is a plain 



70 PORT-AU-PRINCE. 

substantial building, with no pretension to splendour : 
and the palace of the President, the largest edifice in the 
city, was built by the English, for the General's head- 
quarters, during their temporary occupation of the south 
of the island; and is, therefore, as little like a royal 
palace as any republican could desire. The Haytien flag, 
of red and blue, floats on its turrets ; and it has in front 
a spacious court, in which are lodges for the military 
guard of horse and foot, who are constantly on duty. 
These are the only public buildings worthy of notice. 
The Roman Catholic church is a capacious structure, 
but very plain and homely. There are some pleasant 
walks and rides in the immediate vicinity, especially in 
the hills above the town, and on the roads leading to 
Petionville and Leogane; but none is more generally 
agreeable than the extensive park -like fields at the back 
of the President's house ; where horsemen and pedes- 
trians repair every morning and evening to enjoy the 
cool breezes, and to watch the rising and setting of the 
sun. The public cemetery is a spot of ground which 
every stranger should visit ; and a funeral procession at 
the close of day, winding along the public paths that 
lead to it, produces a very striking and solemn effect. 
The black boys in their white surplices, bearing lighted 
tapers — the massive silver crucifix — the mitred Abbe and 
his attendant priests and choristers — the coffin placed 
on an open palanquin — and a long train of citizens — 
the men habited in black, the women in white — passing 
now through the public street, and now in side paths 
under the shade of tropical trees, afford a picture which 
has no counterpart in our own country. The length of 
the city is about a mile ; its breadth something less. 
The population is estimated at twenty-three thousand. 



PORT-AU-PRINCE. 7-1 

Numerous ships lie at anchor in the harbour, bearing 
the flags of different nations; and the bustle of commerce 
is constantly going on. The custom-house stands on 
the quay, and is a scene of great activity. 

The first call we made in the city after landing was 
on a French woman, who had formerly kept a boarding 
house, and to whom we had been recommended for 
lodgings. She had quitted her profession a few weeks 
before, and was now living a retired life ; but she re- 
quested us to enter her house, and refresh ourselves ; she 
readily prepared us breakfast, and directed us where to 
look for apartments, sending her servant to conduct us, 
but would take nothing in return. On pressing her to 
accept some consideration for her pains, she replied with 
a kind benevolent look, "Ma religion me commande 
lexer cice de V hospitalite . Je ne puis rien prendre : 
rien de tout" We took care, however, to furnish her 
with a supply of religious books, which she accepted 
thankfully. "We found much difficulty in procuring 
good accommodations ; but succeeded at last in obtaining 
two large apartments on a ground floor, in one of the 
principal streets, for the use of which, and board at the 
public table, we agreed to pay fifty Haytien dollars, or 
£3. 17$. sterling, per week. We found no cause to 
regret the arrangement ; as by this means we combined 
private retirement with the advantage of access to good 
society; and found ourselves in the very focus of news 
and general information. We had here the occasional 
company of merchants of the city, planters from the 
neighbourhood, travellers from distant parts of the 
country, and Roman Catholic priests, who come to the 
capital either to consult with the President, who is head 
of the church, or to see something of the busy world. 



72 THE ABBE d'eCHEVERRIA. 

The conversation at table was generally carried on in 
French, but sometimes in English, out of compliment to 
us ; as we seldom passed a day without meeting with 
some person who understood the language, and who 
seemed pleased with the opportunity of speaking it. 

Having been furnished with a letter of introduction 
to the Abbe D'Echeverria, the principal ecclesiastic of 
Hayti, I w T aited on him early to present it ; and was 
received by him with much affability and politeness. 
He spoke to me of matters connected with the church, 
and of its temporalities, which he represented as 
slender enough ! I ventured to remind him that sixty 
Haytien dollars were allowed by law for a funeral of 
the first class, and a dollar for every baptism. " These 
dollars/' he said, " are the sweat of our brow," ( le 
sueur de nos fronts) ' f but the government impounds 
a large part of them, and applies it to other uses ; we 
only obtain twenty dollars for a funeral, and half a 
dollar for baptizing an infant. What is half a dollar for 
a baptism?" In a day or two after, the Abbe returned 
my call, and requested us, as friends to the abolition of 
slavery, to pay him a visit at the presbytery : if we 
would come and dine with him, we should meet, he 
said, some of the first people of the city. The banquet, 
for such it was, greatly exceeded our expectations ; its 
cost and magnificence were far beyond any idea we had 
formed of the power of priestly wealth in this country. 
It carried us back in imagination to the times of Cardinal 
Wolsey. The company consisted of our generous host 
— the Abbe himself, the Chief Judge of the Court of 
Cassation, three senators of Hayti, five merchants of the 
city, three Roman Catholic priests, a physician, w T ho 
married the only daughter of General Inginac, with his 



DINNER AT THE PRESBYTERY. 72 

amiable and intelligent wife, and ourselves. It would be 
useless to enumerate the various courses and, dishes that 
were served on the occasion. Soups, fish, flesh, fowl, 
and game were brought on the table and removed in 
quick succession, together with a great variety of ices, 
creams, pastry, and comfitures : there was also a splendid 
dessert and many kinds of wine. As soon as the repast 
was ended, the Abbe rose and pronounced a eulogium 
on the virtues of the President ; and then, in allusion 
to his stranger guests, spoke of the efforts made by 
England to destroy slavery and the slave-trade in all 
parts of the wcrld. It was his wish, as an old friend 
of Gregoire and La Fayette, to give these guests 
a welcome to Hayti, and to introduce them to his 
fellow-citizens, as deserving of their high respect and 
kindest attentions. Nothing could be more cordial 
than his manner, or exceed his polite attention to 
us all. On retiring to the drawing-room, coffee was 
immediately served, and some animated conversation 
followed. We spent a pleasant and instructive even- 
ing; and returned home agreeably impressed with the 
good sense and politeness of the company, who were 
all coloured persons, except the four priests and our- 
selves. 

The next post of honour and influence to that of the 
President has long been occupied by General Inginac, a 
man of colour, who spent some of his early days in 
Jamaica, and who speaks the English language with 
great fluency. To him also we had a letter of intro- 
duction, as well as one to President Boyer, from th 
venerable Clarkson. The General received us very 
courteously, and promised me an early interview with 

E 



74 PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

the President. In the meanwhile wa pursued our 
inquiries relative to the state and condition of the 
people. One of the first objects to claim our attention 
was the public schools. There are two institutions of 
this sort in the capital ; one on the principle of mutual 
instruction, for the poor ; and the other, a lyceum or 
college for young men who have received preliminary 
instruction elsewhere, and who go there to complete 
their studies. Both schools are supported by the 
government. In the first, or elementary school, the 
number of those who attend is very small indeed ; 
out of eighty-two boys on the list, only forty-three 
were present, and these were most of them mulattos : 
they looked intelligent enough, but had evidently been 
neglected, and knew very little ; being placed under the 
care of an incompetent master, who received the situa- 
tion, and enjoys the slender emolument it affords, 
because, as we were told, the government thought it 
convenient to pension him off! We examined the 
classes, and heard some of the boys recite ; but found, 
on the whole, very little to approve : yet our visit was 
thought worthy of notice in the Government Gazette, 
and our approbation of it paraded in a long article 
written by the master, in order, as we supposed, to 
commend himself. The lyceum is a really respectable 
institution, and does honour to the republic. The 
branches of education taught, are the French, English, 
Spanish, and Latin languages ; the mathematics, com- 
position, history, and fencing. The professors, or 
teachers, are apparently well qualified men: we attended 
all the classes, and were much gratified at the progress 
of some of the scholars. One of the black boys 



LYCEUM. 75 

construed his Latin verses with much readiness. The 
students are a hundred and fifty in number, mostly 
mulattos : they are attired in a uniform of blue and 
scarlet. A public examination takes place at stated 
intervals, at which prizes of useful books are given to 
those who have made the greatest proficiency. "We 
went on one of these occasions to witness the proceed- 
ings, but came away greatly disappointed. The stage 
was, first occupied by the young fencers, who came in 
armed with a vizor, a blunted sword, and large stuffed 
gloves; wiien numerous encounters took place, to the 
amusement and delight of some of the spectators, but to 
our disgust, and we speedily retired from the scene. 
This practice of training the Haytien youth to the art of 
fencing has a most prejudicial effect on the community : 
the practice of duelling, already dreadfully rife in the 
island, is strengthened by it, and a warlike spirit engen- 
dered and fostered, which it should be the particular 
and earnest aim of the government to discourage and put 
down. What has Hayti, or what is it likely to have, to 
do with foreign war ? Peace is the safety of the Haytien 
people; peace should be the end and object of all her 
institutions. To teach fencing systematically in her 
public schools, is to encourage an art that may one day 
be turned against the republic itself, and plunge the 
country into civil war. The sword which is now used 
as a plaything, may soon be stained with the blood of 
citizens. 

Education is at a rather lower ebb at Port-au-Prince 
than at Cape Haytien : the total number supposed to 
receive instruction in the city is about a thousand, as 
follows : — 

e2 



76 PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

Boys at the school for mutual instruction 80 
At the Lyceum . . .150 

At fifteen private pedagogue schools . 450 
Girls at eight seminaries and dame schools 200 
Boys and girls taught at home . 120 



Total . 1000 

This number is small, but the proportion of black 
children, unhappily, is still smaller. Out of 23,000 
inhabitants, the coloured class may number, perhaps, 
4000, or one-sixth part of the whole; yet this is the class 
that may be said to monopolise education. Children 
who claim their descent from European fathers have no 
greater' aptitude to learn than children of pure African 
blood ; but the ancestors of the latter having been slaves, 
and not having been taught to read, were unable to 
appreciate the vah^-of-edu^ation. Indifference to know- 
ledge, from this cause, has extended from one generation 
to another, and has become a rooted habit of mind ; 
which requires the most firm, judicious, and persevering 
i care to eradicate. The subject of education in Hayti 
is well worthy the attention of philanthropists. Schools 
must be established, maintained and multiplied in the 
island, or it will never recover itself from the dominion 
of semi-heathenism, superstition, and priestcraft, by 
which its people are still fettered, or be likely to put 
forth that industry which will increase the fruits of the 
soil, and enable it, as an agricultural and commercial 
country, to take rank among civilized nations. If the 
government of Hayti, stimulated by precept, and 
assisted by the efforts of the friends of education in 
England, be determined to exert itself to spread light 
and knowledge, the fatal lethargy of the black people 



PUBLIC PRISON. 77 

will soon be shaken off. With ample means to educate 
their children, they only want the disposition : the 
priests, who, too generally " love darkness rather than 
light," may for a time oppose the movement, but every 
difficulty may be overcome by perseverance. 

In a population so circumstanced, where all the nobler 
faculties of the mind are held in abeyance, we need not 
wonder if crime abounded. Ignorance is proverbially 
the parent of crime : yet such is the docility of the 
negro, such his respect for, and general submission to, 
the authority of human law, that robberies of the 
person, and other high crimes and misdemeanours, are 
but little known. Petty pilfering, such as the masters 
of slaves once permitted, and such as the boasting 
Spartans encouraged, is common enough; and it is 
from offences of this sort and from acts of military 
insubordination, that the gaols are kept constantly 
filled. We were assured again and again by persons 
of every rank in society, that travellers may pass 
through the country from one end to the other, with 
known treasure in their possession, and be perfectly 
safe. The military institutions, as we shall presently 
see, encourage and confirm the practice of petty thieving, 
and have given rise to many, if not most, of the vices 
that prevail. We requested leave to visit the city- 
prison, of the Adjutant-commander of the district, who 
deferred giving us an answer; but on the next morn- 
ing one of the President's aides- de- camps came to our 
lodging with a written permission. The gaoler, who 
had been apprised of our coming, entered with alacrity, 
and with much shew of consequence, on his duty. Two 
officers with drawn swords attended him, and ourselves, 
through the apartments. A young man, who acted as 



78 PUBLIC PRISON. 

secretary, followed with pen, ink, and paper, and noted 
down the observations we made in passing along ; which 
observations were all read over to us, to be verified and 
attested, before we left. The p rison has three courts, of 
about an equal size> fifty-four feet by twenty seven. 
The court. No. 1, contains four apartments, and had in 
it, at the time of our visit, twenty-one prisoners. The 
court, No. 2, has eight apartments, and consequently 
less airing room, but contained eighty-one prisoners! 
The court, No. 3, was devoted to the military, and had 
in it thirty- one soldiers, who occupied four apartments, 
and were confined for breaches of military discipline. 
There is also one other court, No. 4, larger than the 
foregoing, with one large room, and several small ones, 
in which men and women are confined for petty offences 
for a short period only : the yard and apartments being 
open in the day time to both sexes without restraint, 
and with little or no inspection ! All the rooms of the 
prisons were clean and well white- washed. There is a 
fountain of water within the walls, which affords a 
ready and inexhaustible supply. The faults of this 
prison are too numerous to mention : the chief defects 
are want of ventilation, want of space for exercise, 
and want of classification. The prisoners are thus 
enumerated : — Prevenus, sent by the Commandant and 
other public officers, for petty offences: and prisoners not 
yet tried ; 95. Travaux forces ■, convicts sentenced to 
hard labour and the chain gang ; 29. Femmes accuses 
et condamnees, women convicts; 14. Condamnees aux 
correctionels, sentenced to be whipped ; 8. A la reclit- 
8ion, to occasional solitary confinement ; 9. Lunatiques, 
Insane; 6. Total, exclusive of the military ; 161. 
One-quarter of a Haytien dollar (five-pence sterling) 



PUBLIC PRISON. 79 

Is allowed weekly to each prisoner to purchase food ; 
what he requires of food more than this, he must work 
for, or his friends, if he has any, must supply. A 
physician is appointed to visit the sick, and to prescribe 
food and medicine for them, according to their wants. 
No prisoner, we were told, really suffers from hunger ; 
but this statement was contradicted by so many persons 
out of doors, that we doubt the fact. Many cases of 
starvation are believed to have occurred; and it is 
certain that the prisoners often quarrel and contend 
with each other for the orange and banana peelings, 
which those who have sufficient food are contented to 
throw away. The common work of the prisoners is to 
make mats and baskets. Some of the men are nearly 
naked. Such is a brief view of this wretched place of 
confinement ; which, if it reform one convict through 
terror, is calculated to harden twenty, and to turn them 
loose on society, to begin a fresh career of vice. Let 
not Englishmen, however, reproach the African race 
as barbarous, for permitting such prisons to exist ; the 
gaols of England, half-a-century ago, were many of 
them equally wretched. 

If the prisons of Hayti be bad, the criminal juris- 
prudence is no better ; and stands in equal need of a 
thorough reformation. The officers of the army act in 
many cases as justices; and pass sentence for petty 
offences, on summary conviction. "What a wide field for 
abuse is here! The sentences passed by the civil judges 
in open court, though seemingly the result of delibera- 
tion after a patient trial of the parties accused, are said, 
in all cases thought worthy of government interference, 
to be prescribed beforehand. That such is sometimes 
the case is certain ; for a grave in the unconsecrated 



80 CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE. 

burial ground was pointed out to us, which was opened 
for three criminals charged with sedition, before they 
had been put on trial ! 

Accompanied by my friend, James Hartwell, the 
Wesleyan missionary, who had been with us through 
the prison, I entered the Court-house to witness the trial 
of a prisoner accused of stealing cloth from a store. 
The procureur-general, or state-attorney opened the 
case. Rising with all the dignity of an important 
public functionary, he put on his official hat, and 
addressing himself to the judges on the bench, two 
of whom sat covered, he vehemently urged his proofs 
of the prisoner's guilt ; he then called his witnesses, 
but none appeared. The attorney for the prisoner 
then rose, and contended that as there was no evidence 
adduced, he was entitled to an immediate acquittal. 
The state-attorney again rose, bowed to the bench, 
put on his hat as before, and nrged in reply, that inas- 
much as the crime had been distinctly proved before 
a magistrate appointed to take the examination, in 
limine, and this examination was on record before the 
court, and nothing was now advanced by the prisoner 
to establish his innocence, the absence of witnesses was 
immaterial, and he must by law be pronounced guilty. 
The court, consisting of two mulattos and an intelligent 
looking black man, then retired, and were gone about 
half-an-hour. During their absence, the two attorneys, 
accuser and defender, came to my friend and myself, 
and asked us what, in such a case, would be the 
verdict of an English jury. We had no difficulty in 
saying, that he would be acquitted without a moment's 
hesitation. "Whilst we sat waiting the return of the 
judges with their verdict of acquittal, the side door 



DINNER TABLE CONVERSATION. 81 

opened, and a herald came forward, and proclaimed 
attention ; then the chairman read deliberately the 
prisoner's sentence, that he was condemned to three 
years* labour in the chain-gang ! Immediately, con- 
ducted by two soldiers with fixed bayonets, and wearing 
a look of consternation and dismay, he was led out of 
court to his prison-house. Incidents such as these, and 
others that we met with, were often the subjects of con- 
versation at the dinner-table, and elicited comments 
from the company that put us in possession of the state 
of public feeling with regard to these matters. The 
intelligent part of the Haytien people are evidently at 
variance with their own government on many public 
points, — and especially as regards the administration of 
justice. 

Our conversation at dinner sometimes turned on 
slavery and freedom. On one occasion, several planters, 
three of them brothers, from a sugar property in the Cul 
de Sac, were present. The eldest, who had been educated 
in Paris, addressing the company, said, "Nous avons 
parmi nous un Negrophile; voulez vous que nous buvions 
a sa sante ;" and turning to me, " Youlez vous nous 
permettre a boire a votre sante V 9 The custom of 
drinking healths is not so common in Hayti as in 
England ; and it may be hoped is going out of fashion 
everywhere. Without joining in the senseless cere- 
mony, I left them to do as they pleased, but took care 
from the circumstance, to turn the discourse into a 
channel which elicited from the company some striking 
remarks, condemnatory of those nations which permit 
slavery to continue. 

All classes of Haytien citizens, old and young, rich 
and poor, are loud in their denunciations of slavery and 

E 3 



82 SWEDISH CONSUL, 

the slave-trade : they dislike the Americans, on account 
of their permitting slavery to exist, but receive English- 
men with complacency, because the latter have done so 
much to put an end to the horrid system. The mayor 
of St. Mark was often at our table ; with whom 
we held conversations on the state of education in 
his own district, and whom we furnished with some 
sets of school lessons, which he promised to see appro- 
priated to their intended use. A Lancasterian school 
for boys, founded by Christophe, still exists in his 
municipality. 

Among the inhabitants of Port-au-Prince, who showed 
us kindness and hospitality, we are bound to mention 
one English merchant who has much influence in the 
city, and who acts as Consul for the kingdom of Sweden. 
From him and from his amiable wife we received the 
kindest attentions; which, as being strangers in a 
foreign land, were peculiarly grateful to us. At his 
dinner-table we met on one occasion, together with 
other visitors, the British Consul- General, who was 
about to return home; the Yice-Consul of Port-au- 
Prince; and the Consul from Cape Haytien. The 
conversation turned chiefly on war, which most of 
the company joined in approving, as one great means 
of elevating the power of England, and making her 
respected among the nations ! Our war with China 
seemed to meet with especial favour ; but for what moral 
reason it was not easy to comprehend. Much was said 
by the company, and no doubt with great truth, of the 
covetousness, lying and gambling of many of the Romish 
priests, who come from France and Corsica to this island 
as money adventurers ; not to help the needy and in- 
struct the ignorant ; but to make, from the superstitions 



INTERVIEW WITH THE PRESIDENT. 83 

of the common people, as much money as possible in 
the shortest possible time. 

Having called a second time on General Inginac, he 
obligingly gave me an introduction to General Boyer, 
the President. An aid-de-camp in waiting led me to 
the hall of audience ; and in a few minutes after, the 
President himself, attired in a plain suit of black, entered 
by a private door, and taking me by the hand, requested 
me to follow him to his own apartment. The manners 
of the ruler of Hayti are simple and unaffected ; to 
republican plainness, he adds the polish of France, and 
preserves a quiet independent dignity suited to his rank 
and station. His age is sixty-eight ; but his robust 
health and evident activity, make him appear much 
younger. He is a mulatto, with the physiognomy . of 
the French; is rather under than over the average 
height ; and is neither thin nor corpulent : he has a 
keen expressive eye, and an intelligent countenance. 
With strangers he converses only in French; though 
he has travelled in America, and understands the 
English language. During the interview of half an 
hour, with which he kindly favoured me, he made 
particular inquiries after the venerable Clarkson ; with 
whose character, as a strenuous advocate of the 
abolition of slavery and the slave-trade, he was well 
acquainted; and of whom he had a more intimate 
knowledge than of other men, from his correspondence 
with Christophe, in which he manifested such an 
intense interest in the best welfare of Hayti. "All 
the letters of Wilberforce and Clarkson, addressed to 
Monsieur Christophe," such were his words, " are in my 
possession : they thought highly of the man, but they 
did not understand his real character: they thought 



84 INTERVIEW WITH THE PRESIDENT. 

hirn the genuine friend of his country, but he deceived 
them." " I received a letter from Mr. Clarkson," he 
continued, " soon after the death of Christophe, in which 
he requested me to show kindness to his widow. I 
thought it somewhat singular; for though Christophe 
was a cruel man, and though he killed my own brother, 
I would have forfeited my life a thousand times, rather 
than have shown unkindness to his widow. I always 
protected Madame Christophe." " He entertained/' he 
said, " a high regard for the religious Society of Friends : 
he had known some of that body in America, and was 
acquainted with some of their customs. I might depend 
on his protection whilst in Hayti ; and he had given 
an order to the authorities to furnish me with all the 
papers I had asked for, to illustrate the resources and 
condition of the republic." He wished me however, as 
a stranger, not to overlook the single fact, that Hayti 
was a young nation : that it was only yesterday, 
that she was released from the menaces and fears of 
France, by a new treaty of compensation for her ter- 
ritory; and that till the present time there had been 
no opportunity for the government to devote itself in 
earnest on peace-principles, to improve the institutions 
of the country. On rising to take leave, I begged per- 
mission to present him with some religious publications, 
handsomely bound : he received them very courteously ; 
and on observing a series of the tracts of the Peace 
Society, which had been translated into the French 
language, he said with an air and tone of sincerity, " If 
the principles of that Society had been acted upon by 
the nations, what an accumulation of misery would the 
world have been spared ! " 

The papers alluded to by the President, were soon 



INTERVIEW WITH THE PRESIDENT. 85 

after put into my hands by General Inginac, his 
Secretary of State; and these enable me, in conjunction 
with information obtained from other quarters, to lay 
before the reader a brief statement of the commerce, 
finances, and expenditure of the island, the number 
and pay of the standing army, and the employments 
and resources of the agricultural population. To these 
I may add, some information on the constitution of 
Hayti, in church and state ; and some observations on 
the estimated amount of its population. 



86 CONSTITUTION OF HAYTI. 



CHAPTER VI. 

CONSTITUTION OF HAYTI — CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT- 
ARMY — COMMERCE FINANCE — EMPLOYMENTS AND 

CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE — ESTIMATE OF THE 
POPULATION. 

The constitution of Hayti, as now embodied in the 
statutes of the island, was finally modified in 1816. The 
government of the republic is confided to a President, 
chosen for life, who has power to nominate his successor 
at death, reserving to the senate the right, if they see fit, 
to reject the nomination, and choose any other citizen 
they may prefer. The legislative power is vested in three 
branches, which must all concur in passing the laws : 
1st, The President, with whom all the laws originate : 
2nd, The Senate, chosen for nine years, who are selected 
from lists presented by the President to the House 
of Assembly for its choice : 3rd, The House of Repre- 
sentatives, chosen for five years by free election of the 
people assembled in their respective communes; who 
are professedly and in theory, an independent body, at 
liberty to call in question the management of public 
affairs, and to address the President on any occasion, as 
often as they will. The salary of the President is 40,000 
Haytien dollars per annum, with an extra salary of 
30,000 dollars when engaged in any one year in travel- 
ling through the island on a tour of inspection for the 
public good. Each Senator has a salary paid by the 



CONSTITUTION OF HAYTI. 87 

State of 133 dollars per month; and each Representative 
receives 200 dollars per month during the session of 
Congress. The Haytien dollar at the present rate of 
exchange is one shilling and eight pence, The salary 
of the President, therefore, in sterling money is £3333 ; 
and, when travelling, £2500 per annum in addition : 
the salary of a Senator is £133 per annum ; and that of 
a Representative to the House of Assembly, during a 
session of three months, about £50. The constitution, 
however liberal it may appear in theory, and containing, 
as it does, some of the essential elements of a republic, 
is, in practice, often at variance with the liberties and 
true happiness of the people. The President is chosen 
for life : he takes care in presenting lists to the House 
of Representatives, for the choice of Senators, so to 
arrange the names, as to ensure the election of the 
persons that he wishes ; and from the comparative- 
poverty and ignorance of many members of the House 
of Assembly, who are always subservient, he can 
influence the decision of that body at his pleasure ; even 
so far as to induce them to expel any member who 
manifests the least show of resistance to his will. The 
President of Hayti, being governor for life, generalissimo 
of the forces, head of the church, and fountain of honour 
and rewards, is thus a sovereign in all but the name. 
The maxims of his government are those of clemency, 
and to rule for the people's good ; but a mistaken view 
of what that good really requires, leads him occasionally 
into acts of substantial injustice. The constitution pre- 
scribes that a law should be passed to regulate the choice 
of soldiers for the army: no project of such a law has yet 
been presented, and the citizens are called out, impressed, 
and compelled to serve in the ranks at the will of the 



88 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 

executive. Many and bitter are the complaints on this 
head, especially from the merchants and traders, who see 
their sons sometimes torn from them, to be placed side by 
side with ragamuffins, who are satisfied with the parade 
and idleness of a military life ; and who, from long con- 
tinuance in it, have become as demoralized and corrupt, 
as the profession of arms can make them. Do the citizens 
who feel this oppression look to their representatives for 
help ? They know that all appeal of this sort would be 
useless. Only four years ago, early in 1838, in conse- 
quence of a bold address to the President, a strife was 
stirred up between the two Houses of the Legislature; 
and the House of Representatives was prevailed upon 
by a majority, to expel six of its best and most honest 
members ! It is impossible to read the printed pro- 
ceedings and votes of this little parliament, without at 
once seeing on which side the wrong lies. The following 
sensible and spirited remarks contained in the address, 
occasioned the disturbance. But what shall we say of 
the subserviency of a legislative body that adopted such 
a resolution by acclamation one month, and pronounced a 
vote of expulsion on its supporters the next ? " Le choc 
qui existe entre les principes fondamentaux et les disposi- 
tions reglementaires de la constitution sont une antinomie 
qui doit disparaitre du code des droits et des devoirs. 
L' experience proclame cette verite : les dispositions 
reglementaires dune constitution arretent le jeu libre des 
ressorts du gouvernement, dont les principes fondamen- 
taux sont le mobile : elles amoindrissent la somme de 
bien qui doit devoiler de son action. La nation vous sup- 
plie done d'assurer son avenir : vous en avez la puissance 
et le genie : aujourd'hui que la paix est imperturbable, 
il nest plus terns d'ajourner. Exprimez un voeu; et 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 89 

bientot des mains reoeneratrices reconstruiront l'edifice 
social : ravivez nos institutions qui sont deja menaces 
de vetuste, parcequ aux yeux du pays, elles sont 
insuffisantes pour les besoins de la societe." * The 
house then goes on to request from the President the 
projects of new laws suited to the exigency of the 
times, among which are enumerated, a law to insure 
the responsibility of public functionaries — to alter the 
custom-house duties — to fix the rate of interest and 
repress usury — to restrict the power now given to 
Justices of the Peace — to determine suits on summary 
conviction without appeal ; and a law to modify the 
severities of the Code Rural, which it denounces as at 
variance with public feeling, and therefore inoperative 
to its end. " Si nous examinons a present l'instabilite 
de certaines lois, nous nous etonnerions de les voir 
s'arreter tout a coup, comme frappees d'inertie, apres 
avoir pris un essor rapide ; de ce nombre, on distingue 
le code rural. II est tombe, et sa chute a ecrase 
I'agriculture ; mais il faut le dire, il a subi le sort de 
toutes les institutions qui ne sont pas dans Tesprit du 
siecle de perfectionnement. Prive de la sanction de 

* The clashing of fundamental principles with the details of 
the constitution, is a contradiction which must disappear from the 
code of rights and duties. Experience proclaims this truth : the 
details of a constitution interfere with the free exercise of the 
powers of government which should always be regulated by 
fundamental principles. They lessen the sum total of the good 
which ought to result from its action. The nation entreats you 
then to give it security for the future : you have the power and 
the genius to do so. At present, peace is undisturbed and secure, 
it is therefore no time for delay. Express but the wish, and 
regenerating hands will re-construct the social edifice ; re-animate 
our institutions which are already threatened with decay, because 
in the eyes of the country they are insufficient for the wants of 
society. 



90 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 

P opinion, Pinteret meme na pu la garantir dune desue- 
tude native, mais nous eroyons pouvoir avancer, sans 
craindre d'etre contredit, que ce code modifie et appro - 
prie aux besoins de Pepoque presente, produira les 
plus heureux effets."* A few such legislators as these 
of Hayti, who write and speak in this spirit, might 
be useful in our own House of Commons ; but their 
reforming hand has been paralysed : the President 
thought them too much in advance of the age, and as 
requiring more than the public good, or the people at 
large could bear ! He therefore caused the Assembly 
to be decimated, and made their own votes the execu- 
tioner of his secret decree. The government of Hayti 
is in fact a military despotism in the hands of a 
single man ; mild and merciful it must be confessed, 
and desiring the welfare of his country ; but mistaken 
in some of his views, and therefore acting on some 
occasions in a manner utterly opposed to the public 
good. 

Often did we hear from intelligent Haytiens, serious 
complaints of this tendency in the executive ; and often 
was the wish expressed to us, that the public press 
of England and France, might be induced to set forth 
their national grievances to the world. " If you publish 

* If we examine, at the present moment, the instability of 
certain laws, we shall be astonished to see them stopped suddenly, 
as if struck with inertia, after having taken a rapid stride. Of 
this number is the rural code. It has fallen, and its fall has 
crushed agriculture ; although, it must be confessed it has only 
experienced the fate of all institutions that are opposed to the 
spirit of an improving age. Deprived of the support of public 
opinion, interest itself cannot keep it from falling into desuetude ; 
but we think we may assert without fear of contradiction, that 
this very code, if so modified as to meet the wants of the present 
age, would produce the happiest results. 



THE ARMY. 



91 



observations on Hayti," said several of the merchants 
and planters to me, " represent us as we are ; do not 
flatter us ; exhibit our true condition ; we seek ame- 
lioration not by force of arms — we have had bloodshed 
and strife enough, — but through the important and 
powerful medium of the opinion of observing foreigners, 
who see our condition, and can state what it really is. ? 
My object in these pages is to exhibit Hayti and its 
institutions as they really are. 

Let me now speak of the standing army. The last 
account in detail placed in my hands by the govern- 
ment, gives the following enumeration : — Under the 
head Military Appointments, as commanders of districts, 
there are nine generals ; fifteen brigadier-generals ; 
sixty - three colonels ; forty - eight lieutenant - colonels ; 
nine captains ; one lieutenant ; and twenty medical 
men; whose united pay amounted to 188,407 dollars, 
or <£1 5,700 sterling. This, in the present depreciated 
currency of the island, yields less, on an average, than 
£100 sterling to each individual. The pay of a general, 
is £225 per annum; that of a brigadier-general, £170; 
that of a colonel, £125; that of a lieutenant-colonel, 
£66 ; that of a captain, <£25 ; and that of a lieutenant, 
£18.* 

The standing army, consists, in addition, of 33 colonels ; 
95 lieutenant-colonels ; 825 captains ; 654 lieutenants ; 
577 sub-lieutenants and ensigns; 68 15 non-commissioned 
officers ; 25 medical men ; and 19,127 rank and file : — 
total 28,151. The pay of a common soldier is three 
dollars per month, or £3. sterling per annum, for one 
week on duty out of every three ; being at the rate of 

* The above-mentioned officers are invested with civil as well 
as military power. 



92 TIIE ARMY. 

three shillings and sixpence per week, for every week 
that such soldier musters on parade. The total cost of 
the army in 1838, including the Arsenals, Hospitals, 
and Marines, was in Haytien dollars 1,418,557; or 
,£118,213 in sterling money: a small sum for the 
maintenance of such an immense standing army ; but a 
much larger sum than Hayti, with her very limited 
resources, can afford to pay, or is likely long, to 
sustain. The army is in a state of gradual reduction : 
its numerical force in 1840, was twenty-five thousand. 

By the present arrangements, the common soldier 
attends one week on duty in the muster-field, and is 
left at liberty to go to his own home, or to procure work 
where he can the two succeeding weeks ; and this reduces 
the army in point of pay^ to one-third of its present 
numerical amount; or to 8500 men. An immense army 
this, feeing at the rate of one in a hundred of the whole 
population ; whereas, Great Britain and Ireland, war- 
loving countries, have but one soldier on pay to every 
two hundred and twenty-five of its people ; and many 
of the European states, have a smaller proportion still. 
Most of the common soldiers of Hayti are, or might be, 
cultivators of the soil in their own right, or they might 
work on the plantations as sharers of the produce with 
the large proprietors. If set entirely free from a military 
life, this w T ould be their immediate and natural condition 
in society : they would at once return to their native 
cabins, and give their strength to the cultivation of 
the soil. But the habits of the camp and the barracks 
unsettle them ; they are bound to be present at parade, 
except under special exemption, once in the week at 
all times; and some of them live ten, twenty, and 
even thirty miles distant from the muster-ground. 



THE ARMY. 93 

How can men, under such circumstances, devote much 
of their two weeks of liberty to agriculture ? Six clear 
days in a week, every two weeks out of three are their 
own ; and of the twelve so allowed, two, three, and 
sometimes four days are consumed in going and return- 
ing. Thus harassed by marching, when they get no 
pay, they become discouraged, grow listless and idle, 
and instead of attempting to go home, seek casual 
employment near the place of rendezvous ; and, if no 
honest profitable labour is at hand, rather than starve, 
they will sometimes go to the nearest provision grounds 
and help themselves. The small cultivators become 
dissatisfied at the frequent robbery of their gardens and 
grounds ; and lose much time in hunting out the offenders 
and in bringing them to summary justice ; society gets 
disorganised; and all this dreadful inconvenience and 
loss, with peril to the morals of the community, is 
encountered, that the government may make a display 
of a large disposable military force, and be ready 
to resist an invasion, which no power, European or 
American, has the slightest desire to undertake, or the 
hardihood to instigate ! Hayti might safely dismiss her 
army altogether ; for she has no enemies abroad to serve 
as a pretence for maintaining it ; or, if she need an active 
police, let her retain one-fourth of the present soldiers 
as policemen, give them a peace uniform, and pay them 
good wages. This would be one means, and a very 
important one, of regenerating the country. The active 
limbs of eighteen thousand strong men, might thus be 
employed on the soil, and raise food for the supply of at 
least ten times their own number. Look at the pay of 
a soldier on duty; sixpence sterling a day; scarcely 
sufficient to buy the common provisions of life ! What 



94 THE CHURCH. 

a wretched system, and how short-sighted the govern- 
ment that permits it to continue. The troops are well 
accoutred, and pretty well dressed: and the officers, 
chiefly black men, having no qualification by education 
for civil service in the state, are ambitious of command 
in the army. These men must be propitiated and kept 
in action and pay ; and hence in part the continuance of 
the evil. Besides the standing army above enumerated, 
there is a militia force in the island of 40,000 men; who 
assemble one day in every quarter for inspection and a 
review. Sixty-five thousand soldiers, out of less than a 
million of people, or one in fifteen of all the inhabitants ! 
Does the House of Representatives ask for reform with- 
out cause ? Let us now dismiss the army, and take a 
glance at the church. 

The history of the church in Hayti may be 
given in a few words. At a former period, when 
the Spanish part of the island was subject to France, 
the Archbishop of Santo Domingo exercised under 
the Pope, ecclesiastical supremacy. Since the union 
of both divisions of the island under the republic, 
the jurisdiction of the Pope at Rome has been repu- 
diated ; the Archbishop has banished himself to a 
distant country, and the President, following the 
example of Henry the Eighth, has become head of the 
church. The religion recognised by law is Roman 
Catholic ; but there is only one order of priests ; no 
archbishops, bishops, deans or other titled dignitaries 
swell the ecclesiastical muster-roll, or levy contributions 
on the people. Entire toleration is the law of the 
land, and is freely extended to all dissentients from 
the Romish church. There are no tithes for the main- 
tenance of a priesthood, and no forced contributions 



THE CHURCH. 95 

for the support of public worship or the repair of 
the parish church. Every contribution on the score 
of religion is paid for some presumed spiritual benefit, 
and the amount to be demanded for each separate 
service is regulated by law. The following are the 
payments prescribed for church service, by a late act 
of the legislature 1840, cap. iv. art. 23. " There shall 
be received for a baptism half a dollar. For a mar- 
riage, with the performance of mass, eight dollars. For 
a marriage without the mass, four dollars. For a mass 
thirty-seven cents and-a-half. For a high mass, a 
service, or a funeral of the first class, in parishes where 
there are churchwardens appointed, sixty dollars ; and in 
parishes where there are none, forty dollars. For funerals 
of the second class, twenty dollars. For funerals of the 
third class, ten dollars. Art. 29. At masses, services, 
and funerals of the first class, there shall be in attend- 
ance four singers, twelve choristers, a cross-bearer, 
sacristan, and swiss, (sacristaine et Suisse.) At funerals 
of the second class, two singers, six choristers, a 
cross-bearer, and sacristan. At funerals of the third 
class, one singer, two choristers, a cross bearer, and 
sacristan. Art. 30. At services and funerals of the 
first class, there shall be a general ringing of bells, a 
suite of hangings for the interior and doors of the 
church, church-plate complete, with mortuary cloth and 
ornaments at the altar. At funerals of the second class, the 
ringing of two bells, drapery half way down the church, 
mortuary cloth at the altar, and a portion of church 
plate. At funerals of the third class, the sounding of a 
single bell, mortuary cloth, a smaller portion of plate, 
and twelve candles. There shall be also, at funerals of 
the first class, hangings at the doors of the residence of 



96 the cnrRCH. 

the deceased. Art, 31. At services and funerals of the 
first class and second class, the necessary tapers are to 
be furnished by the party who requires the service or 
funeral. At those of the third class, the church shall 
furnish them. After the ceremonies, the tapers and 
candles that remain shall go one-half to the repair of the 
church, the other half to the priest. Neither rectors 
nor vicars shall receive any thing for offices at which 
they do not assist in person, except in cases of sickness." 
Such are the fees by which the Romish church in 
Hayti is sustained. One portion of them is given by 
law to the churchwardens for the needful repairs of the 
parish church, and some other parish purposes ; or to 
the council of notable men, where there is a corporation ; 
and the remainder in different defined proportions is 
bestowed on the rectors, vicars, singers, choristers, cross- 
bearer, and other officers. Every one by law is paid for 
what he does, and no one is paid for what he does not. 
These payments to ihe church are in one sense a tax, 
because they are prescribed by law ; but they are a tax 
which any individual who has a conscientious objection to 
them, may avoid paying, by declining the use of the pre- 
scribed rites. A mother brings her child to be baptized 
by the priest, and receives his blessing, and pays half- 
a- dollar for the presumed benefit ; but if she decline the 
ceremony altogether, or take her child to a protestant 
missionary for baptism, the state exacts nothing. A 
person dies : the relations of the deceased desire a grand 
funeral, and pay sixty dollars for the service, sixty 
dollars for high mass, and sixty for the interment ; and 
receive in return a loud noise of bells, a full choir, and 
the display of a huge silver crucifix ; all this is perfectly 
intelligible, and looking at religion as a trade or a 



THE CHURCH. 97 

plaything is perfectly just ; but if the relations or 
friends of a deceased person choose to bury the body 
in the public cemetery without the intervention of a 
priest, the grave is opened to receive it, and the state 
exacts nothing, A large number of those who die in 
remote country places, to save the payment of fees, are 
buried without priestly rites or assistance ; and many 
are buried with the rites of heathenism, such as are 
practised to this day in the heart of Africa ; but when 
poor people die in a town or city, and are buried with- 
out the crucifix, because their friends are unable or 
unwilling to pay for it, the sympathies of their neigh- 
bours are excited towards the memory of the dead, and 
reproaches are cast on the church for its covetousness. 
The common people, speaking generally, are not very- 
solicitous to have their deceased relatives buried by the 
priest. Water-baptism is thought to be essential to 
salvation, and must be performed at all hazards, and 
at whatever cost. A registration is made of births and 
burials ; the recorded number of births may be presumed 
to be nearly correct, but no dependence whatever can 
be placed on the record of burials as a proof of the 
actual mortality. It is impossible to ascertain the 
amount of money levied by ecclesiastical charges on the 
whole people, as the sums received are not accounted 
for to the public treasury. Unless, therefore, access be 
obtained to the parish books, there are no means of 
arriving at the truth. Approximation to it, is all that can 
be looked for. The income of the Abbe D'Echeverria, 
at Port-au-Prince, was variously estimated at from 
10,000 to 40,000 dollars, or from £800 to £3200 per 
annum. Ecclesiastical fees, however, must necessarily 
be large in a populous town or parish, where many of 

F 



THE CHURCH. 



the inhabitants, are not of the poorest class ; and hence 

some of the priests become speedily rich. The chief 

object of the ecclesiastics in Hayti (their number is 

about seventy) is to secure gold and silver as quickly 

as they can, to send to Europe for investment : three 

instances of this sort came under our own observation ; 

in one of which a priest having heard that we possessed 

some doubloons, came privately to us to bargain for a 

few of them, to send abroad ; and in the others, money 

to a considerable amount had been placed in the hands 

of English merchants of our acquaintance to invest in 

the English and French funds. One priest told me how 

much he had placed in our Three per cent Consols, and 

asked me confidentially what I thought of the safety of 

entrusting his money to a certain merchant in one of the 

trading towns, for transmission abroad. The means of 

acquiring wealth, by greedy ecclesiastics, are unhappily 

always ready to their hand : they encourage superstitious 

feelings in the people, and receive donatives without 

law as well as by virtue of it. Not contented with 

baptising children for gain, they baptise houses, boats, 

and door-posts ! A merchant at Gonaives assured 

us, that he had paid on one occasion twenty dollars 

to a priest for baptising a small vessel when ready 

for sea, which belonged to a female friend of his; 

and related to us many other instances of church 

rapacity. So mercenary, indeed, have the Romish 

priests become — many of them are low-bred Corsicans, 

notorious for habits of debauchery — that General 

Inginac, in an address to his fellow-citizens, recently 

published, bestows on them the following indignant 

and well-merited rebuke : — " Les ecclesiastiques sont 

sans doute ceux qui par leur etat, sont appeles 

specialement a travailler sans relache, soit a Tautel, soit 



THE CHURCH. 99 

en particulier, non seulement a precber les doctrines de 
l'Education Morale et Religieuse, mais encore a en offrir 
a cliaque instant les exemples qui peuvent le mieux en 
faire comprendre Timportance. Or, est-ce bien ce dont 
ils s'occupent toujours ? Se montrent-ils, tous ceux qui 
sont admis a ofiicier dans la Republique, uniquement 
occupes a penetrer le cceur et Tesprit de leurs ouailles de 
ces sentimens sublimes qui vivifient la conscience et 
excitent a la pratique des vertus cbretiennes ? On 
pourrait reprocber a bien des Cures des paroisses d'etre 
loin de mettre dans raccomplissement de leurs devoirs 
sacres toute l'onction et Texactitude que Ton est fonde a 
attendre de ceux qui parlent au nom de la Divinite. 
Que de grands malheurs ne doiveut pas resulter de 
Texemple donne par les Pretres qui, sans respect pour 
ceux quon a confi.es a leur direction pastorale, se livrent 
a des scandales de tous les genres, qui trahissent et le 
Gouvernement paternel qui les protege et le Tout-Puis- 
sant dont ils sont les Minis ires ; les Pretres sont des 
hommes et ils peuvent faillir lorsque la vertu ne s'est 
pas tout-a-fait emparee de leurs ames et lorsque, n'etant 
pas contenus pas une stricte surveillance dans les prin- 
cipes de la saine moralite, et se trouvant au milieu d'un 
peuple bon et genereux, ils ne songent quaux avantages 
materiels de leurs positions, sans se preoccuper de Tessen- 
tiel de leurs devoirs. Lorsquil arrive que des Pretres se 
montrent ainsi infldeles aux obligations qui leur sont 
imposees et qu'ils ne se livrent qua V immoralite ou a 
des pratiques superstitieuses, pour mieux en imposer aux 
credules qui sapprochent des autels, qui doit les rappeler 
a leurs pieuses obligations ?"* 

* The ecclesiastics are, without doubt, the individuals who, from 
their station in society, are peculiarly called upon to labour inces- 

F 2 



100 THE CHURCH. 

If the above charges be true, and no one who is 

acquainted with the state of the country can for a 

moment doubt, that, they are so; we may use the 

words of our own Christian poet, and applying them 

to such a priesthood, say : — 

" A few there are with Eli's spirit blest ; 
Hophni and Phineas may describe the rest." 

Dr. England, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Charles- 
ton, United States, came out to Hayti, about eight years 
ago, as the Pope's legate, to try and establish the Pope's 
supremacy. He found the island in a shocking state. 
Two of the priests in the presbytery of Port-au-Prince 
had been galley slaves released from bondage ! The 

santly, whether at the altar, or in private life, not only to preach 
morality and religion, but to offer in their own conduct those 
exemplifications of doctrine which may the better enable others to 
comprehend its importance. But is it in this manner that they 
occupy their time? Do they shew themselves — all those who are 
admitted to officiate in the republic — solely occupied in endeavour- 
ing to penetrate the heart and understanding of their flocks with 
those exalted sentiments which quicken the conscience, and excite 
to the practice of Christian virtues ? We may reproach many of the 
parish clergy with being far from carrying into the performance of 
their sacred duties, all the unction and the accuracy which we 
have a right to look for in those who speak in the name of the 
divinity. What dreadful evils must needs result from the example 
thus set by the priests, who without regard to those who are con- 
fided to their pastoral guidance, give themselves over to all sorts 
of abominations : who betray both the paternal government which 
affords them its protection, and the Almighty, whose ministers 
they are. The priests are men, and must needs fail since virtue 
has not taken possession of their minds. Not being kept by strict 
watchfulness in the principles of sound morality, and finding them- 
selves in the midst of a confiding and generous people, they 
dream only of their own secular advantage, to the entire neglect 
of their essential duties. Since it happens that the priests are so 
faithless to their obligations, devoting themselves only to immoral- 
ity, and to superstitious practices, that they may the more readily 
impose on the credulous, who approach the altars ; who, we may 
ask, should recall them to a sense of their religious duties? 



THE CHURCH. 101 

immorality and debauchery of others had become so 
notorious that the Council of Notables took up the 
matter; and when the priests refused, as spiritual 
persons, to answer the interrogatories of a lay tribunal, 
General Boyer, to cut the matter short, banished them 
from the country. 

During our stay at the capital, a priest from the 
country was brought up to answer a charge preferred 
against him of keeping a note of ten dollars, offered by 
the parents of a child to satisfy the baptismal fee. 
Instead of returning nine dollars as change, he kept the 
whole, on the principle that it ought to be given him ! 
The circumstance excited great indignation in the city, 
and became a common subject of conversation. A brother 
priest of the culprit's cBasd with us 
public table, and when reproached with the transaction, 
lie coolly said, by way of defending his order, u There 
is no rule without exceptions." There are undoubted 
exceptions to the charge of general corruption. To say 
nothing of the respectable Abbes of Cape Haytien and 
Port-au-Prince, with whom we formed a friendship 
when in those cities; we heard of a few other priests 
who were much esteemed by their parishioners; and can 
bear testimony to the zeal of one of them, residing at 
Jacmel, in favour of general education, and the distribu- 
tion of the holy scriptures; on which subjects he has 
boldly stated his opinions in the principal journal of the 
island. With regard to the ecclesiastical institutions of 
the republic we may safely say, in conclusion, that if 
the standing army be one cause of the degradation of 
the people, the Church is surely another ; and the sooner 
it can be reformed, the better for religion, for morals, 
and for the physical well being of the community. 



102 PROTESTANTS. 

In connexion with the state of the church, we must 
not omit all mention of the protestants at Port-au- 
Prince; a small band, but worthy of notice. There 
are three congregations who possess dissenting chapels 
within the limits of the city ; one of these are Baptists, 
chiefly emigrants from America, who have service per- 
formed in the English language ; another is called 
Methodist, but not in connexion with any recognized 
body of Methodists, or under any control from abroad ; 
and a third, Wesley an Methodists, whose chapel is 
the property of the Wesley an Missionary Society of 
London, and of whom James Hartwell, the representa- 
tive of that society, is the esteemed and useful minister. 
The entire number of professing protestants, French and 
English, is about five hundred. The larger portion of 
all these congregations are Anglo-Americans of the 
middle class, or in the lowest walk of life ; and many of 
them, I am sorry to say, are far from adorning the 
doctrines of the religion they profess, by a consistent 
course of conduct. Instead of endeavouring to raise the 
people around them from the moral degradation into 
which a sort of semi-heathenism has plunged them, 
they themselves give way to the prevailing corruptions, 
and sink to the common level. There are some truly 
pious people among the Wesleyans, who were awakened 
to a sense of religion, under the preaching of the two 
first missionaries of that denomination, about twenty- 
five years since. The mission was suspended soon after 
it commenced, owing to a grievous persecution from the 
Romish priests ; but the fruits of its useful labours still 
remain. We saw and conversed with several of these 
primitive converts, and can bear testimony to their 
simplicity, piety, and zeal : they form the nucleus of a 



STEPHEN GRELLET. 103 

French church, which though very small at present as 
to numbers, seems likely, under the new arrangements 
of the mission, to increase. There is a station in the 
mountains near Mirebalais, about thirty miles distant, in 
connexion with them, at which about a hundred indivi- 
duals occasionally meet to receive religious instruction. 
The total number of professing protestants in all Hayti, 
is presumed not to exceed twelve hundred. 

In the year 1815, a visit of a religious character was 
paid to this part of the island by Stephen Grellet, a 
native of France, and minister of the Society of Friends, 
who extended his travels to Cayes and Jacmel. The 
former President, Alexander Petion, received him with 
great cordiality, and permitted him to preach to his 
soldiers from the steps of the palace ; himself and his 
staff attending as auditors. The memory of this visit 
still remains, and several persons bore testimony, in our 
presence, to the preacher's faithfulness ; many wishes 
were also expressed that the Society of Friends might be 
induced to send out some of its members to settle among 
the people, and undertake to teach them. The door is 
open to missionaries of all denominations, but whoever 
enters on this field of labour must do it in faith, with 
a single dependence on the Lord of the harvest for a 
blessing. The fields at present are far from being 
" white unto harvest ;" and long and ardent toil and 
watching, with much scoffing and neglect must be the 
expected portion of every one who engages in the work. 
Pious teachers of youth, men and women of enterprising 
habits, who shall be able to converse and teach in the 
French tongue, whom zeal in the cause of education 
shall lead into the field ; and whom no impediments can 



104 COMMERCE. 

daunt, or labour tire, are the individuals of whom Hayti 
stands in need, more especially at the present moment. 

Intimately connected with the physical well-being of 
the Haytien population is the state and advancement of 
commerce among them. On this subject the papers 
furnished us by the government, throw considerable 
light. It cannot be expected, that a people lately 
engaged in a long and arduous struggle for indepen- 
dence, and but just released from the terrors of invasion, 
should have become at once commercial ; but with all 
their disadvantages — with only a corrupt disbanded 
soldiery for cultivators of the soil; with an immense 
standing army ; without education to raise them in the 
rank of civilised society, or even to stimulate them 
to industry, they maintain a respectable commercial 
standing among the nations. 

The following table exhibits the quantity and sorts 
of produce exported from the island of Hayti in the 
years 1838 and 1839, distinguishing each year, with the 
value of the articles calculated in sterling money at the 
mean current rate of exchange for those years, of thirty- 
seven Haytien dollars to the Spanish doubloon, or about 
twelve Haytien dollars to the pound sterling. The 
weight of coffee, and other commodities, as given in 
pounds, represents a smaller amount than the actual 
weight according to our English scale, inasmuch as 
100 lbs. Haytien are equal to 108 lbs. British. The 
coffee exported in 1838, instead of standing as it does in 
the table at 49,820,241 lbs. requires an addition of 
eight per cent, to make it European, and amounts to 
53,805,857 lbs. 



COMMERCE. 



105 



EXPORTATION FROM THE REPUBLIC OF HAYTI. 


Produce. 


18S8. 


1839. 


Mean of 
the two 
years. 


Market value 
exclusive of duty. 


Value in 
sterling. 
money. 


Coffee in lbs 


49,820,241 


37,889,092 


43,854,666 


Dol. 23 pr. 100 lbs. 


£834,055 


Cocoa ditto .... 


453,418 


477,414 


465,416 


.. 15J ditto 


6,019 


Tobacco ditto .. . 


1,995,049 


2,102,791 


2,048,920 


.. 30 ditto 


51,222 


lLogwood ditto.. . 


7,888,936 


25,946,068 


16.917.502 


. . 26 per ton 


18,325 


Cotton ditto .... 


1,170,175 


1,635,420 


1,402,792 


. . 25 per 100 lbs. 


25,223 


Mahogany in ft. 


4,880,873 


5,903,477 


5,392,175 


. . 180 per 1000 ft. 


81,655 


Ginger in lbs. 


39,076 


36,366 


37,721 






Horns in tale. .. 


26,026 


23,616 


24,821 


c 




Rags in lbs 


53,771 


63,858 


58,814 






Sirop de Batterie. 


22,155 


357,899 


190,027 


< 


20,000 


;Hides in tale . . . 


21,678 


31,866 


23,932 


J 


Cigars in 1000 . . 


46 


224 


135 


I 




Other products. . 















' 




Total 


1,040,799 



The crop of coffee varies greatly according to the 
season. In 1839, the season was favourable, and the 
return of coffee exported in 1840, was likely to exceed 
fifty millions of pounds weight. The year 1840 was a 
year of drought, and the quantity exported in 1841, was 
likely to be reduced to thirty millions. The average 
export of the country may be reckoned at fifty millions 
of pounds, rather less than more ; the present price free 
on board, at about 33s. per cwt. Coffee is the grand 
staple growth of the country, and comparing the present 
exportation of it, with that of the years previous to 1789, 
when the island was subject to the French, and the ground 
was cultivated by slave-labour, we shall have reason to 
believe that the quantity grown has experienced but a 
small diminution. The estimated amount of coffee 
exported during the latter years of slavery, was seventy 
millions of pounds. The consumption of that article in 
the island was then, probably but small ; it now enters 
into the wants of the common people; and allowing 
an additional consumption among them of a pound 
per week to each family of five persons, we raise the 

f 3 



106 COMMERCE. 

amount produced to fifty- eight millions of pounds, being 
a reduction of only twelve millions, or seventeen per cent. 

The next important article that claims attention is 
cotton. This was cultivated largely under slavery; the 
quantity formerly exported was more than 3,000,000 lbs., 
and as none is manufactured or brought into use in the 
island, the decrease is great. The trade in mahogany 
and dye-woods, has been of late years a vastly improv- 
ing one, and bids fair to be a source of good profit to 
the merchant, and of revenue to the state. Some of the 
logs of mahogany shipped for England, have fetched 
enormous prices owing to their hardness and the exqui- 
site fineness of their grain. A single tree of this descrip- 
tion, sent over in two logs, was purchased, a few years 
since, by Broadwood and Co., pianoforte makers, for the 
extraordinary sum of £3000. The wood was cut into 
thin veneers, which received the finest polish and 
exhibited a surface of rare beauty. A log called the 
Prince Albert, lately shipped from Port-au-Prince, 
measured 800 feet, and realised the sum of 1950 Spanish 
dollars, or more than ^£400 sterling. The cost of 
mahogany on board at Port-au-Prince, including the 
export duty, of twenty-three Haytien dollars per thou- 
sand feet, is on an average of all sorts, about 220 
Haytien dollars per thousand, or fourpence sterling per 
foot ; a large cargo of a good quality meets an average 
nett sale price in England, of about sixteen -pence per 
foot. 

Tobacco is an article of increased cultivation, and is 
claiming the earnest attention of proprietors and of the 
government. This commodity is chiefly grown in the 
north-east of the island, on lands peculiarly adapted 
to it, in the neighbourhood of Santiago. A consider- 



COMMENCE. 107 

able number of Anglo-Americans have settled in this 
region, and are engaged in its manufacture : leaf 
tobacco and cigars are at present the only prepara- 
tions of it for foreign markets; but General Inginac 
has recently published a tract on the subject in which 
he strongly recommends a third preparation made 
ready for chewing, which he thinks may become an 
exportable commodity to a large extent. The price of 
tobacco has advanced in the Haytien market within 
the last ten years, from nine or ten dollars the quintal, 
to twenty-five or thirty dollars. A carreau, or square 
league of ground, cultivated in tobacco, will yield, on 
an average, three thousand pounds weight of the leaf : 
three labourers are sufficient to keep the field in order 
after the plants have been well cleaned; and in five 
months from the sowing of the seed, the harvest is ripe 
and ready for the purposes of commerce. Horns and 
hides of cattle were once exported in great quantities 
from the eastern part of the territory, and live cattle for 
slaughter in the neighbouring islands; but this trade 
has almost entirely ceased, owing to the narrow policy 
of England, France, and Spain ; which nations have 
long forbidden a free intercourse between Hayti and their 
respective colonies. To the present moment no com- 
munication subsists between Hayti and Jamaica, though 
they lie within a day's sail of each other ; and though 
a valuable exchange of commodities might often take 
place between them. England, a short time since, 
offered to open a trade between Hayti and the British 
West India islands ; on the condition that certain pre- 
ferences should be given to British merchants over those 
of other nations in the ports of Hayti : this the Haytien 
government very properly refused, and the negociation 
ended. 



108 COMMERCE. 

During our residence at Kingston, Jamaica, a sloop 
under Haytien colours, entered the harbour in distress ; 
the vessel was permitted to come up to the quay for 
repair, but no communication was allowed with the 
shore : the captain and crew remained prisoners in their 
own barque, and were not permitted to receive even a 
friendly call from a stranger. The exclusiveness of other 
nations begets exclusiveness in Hayti. No white man, 
as we have seen, is permitted by the law of the republic 
to hold a foot of land within its territory : no white 
man can marry a Haytien woman, and thereby become 
entitled to her real or personal estate ; and no white 
man can trade without a special license, renewable 
yearly, with a heavy fine ; nor indeed, generally speak- 
ing, can he trade at all without being associated with a 
Haytien partner. Such restrictions as these tend to 
exclude capital from the country, to paralyse industry, 
and to prevent the increased cultivation of the soil. 
But few Europeans can be found who are willing to 
subject themselves to the fetters thus imposed upon 
them. If a merchant of this class, which is sometimes 
the case, marry a Haytien woman, and buy land, and 
if he desire to preserve in his own hands the power of 
disposing of his property during life or at death : he 
takes a bond of his wife, or presumed wife, for the full 
value of the land purchased, and then disposes of it at 
his pleasure ; as the wife or children, who by law would 
inherit the land, cannot take possession till the created 
incumbrance has been paid off. By schemes like these, 
the law is evaded as to some of its pernicious conse- 
quences; but it still maintains its supremacy in this 
respect, that no white man can possess a freehold, in 
his own right, in the soil. 



COMMERCE. 109 

The greater part of the land, in some of the extensive 
plains, is well adapted to the cultivation of sugar ; and 
the exportation of that article was once very large. 
Previous to the year 1789, according to the table given 
by Bryan Edwards, in his history of the West Indies, 
the annual export of sugar from this colony, chiefly to 
the mother- country, was 1,296,360 cwts., or about 
65,000 hogsheads of a ton each. This trade has entirely 
ceased ; and on this circumstance is built the hypothesis, 
maintained in France, and in all the colonies where 
slavery still exists, that freedom has ruined the island, 
and that slavery, and slavery alone can be relied on to 
ensure a sufficient supply of sugar for the markets of 
the old world. By far the larger part of the estates of 
the old proprietors went out of cultivation for want of 
hands, on the depopulation that followed the civil wars ; 
but much land is still devoted to the sugar-cane, and 
yields an abundant supply of syrup, or uncrystalized 
sugar, and also of a spirit that is distilled from it, called 
tafia, which is consumed in the island to an astonishing 
extent. A great part of what once constituted the 
wealth of slave-proprietors, goes to supply the wants of 
the descendants of their slaves, who are" now free and 
possess the soil. It is quite true, that these wants of 
the people pursue a wrong direction — that sugar is 
better than tafia — that it would be far better to export 
sugar, and purchase manufactured goods with the 
produce, than to consume the ardent spirit distilled from 
it : but this is a matter of taste with the consumers, 
whose comforts real or imaginary are bound up in the 
present system ; and all we can say to them, as we 
might say to multitudes of the English, Scotch, and 
Irish, who pursue the same course, is, that in using 



110 COMMERCE. 

strong drinks they greatly mistake the meaning of 
comfort and retard their own advancement in civil 
society. The syrup consumed is of excellent quality, as 
good and useful for all domestic purposes as sugar itself. 

A review of the present exports of Hayti, brings us 
to a comparison of its foreign commerce with that 
carried on by other nations : nor shall we discover in it 
that ruinous deficiency of which the pro-slavery press 
of Europe and America, is so constantly complaining. 
The annual exports of the republic at the present day, 
exceed in value a million sterling. Its trade with the 
United States of America, was greater a few years since 
than it is at the present time. In the year 1839, the 
United States imported from Hayti to the value of 
2,347,556 dollars ; and exported thence to the value of 
1,815,212 dollars, whilst from all the British West 
Indies in the same period, the imports w T ere only 
1,835,227 dollars, the exports 1,522,347 dollars,- leaving 
a balance of imports in favour of Hayti, as compared 
with that of our colonies, of more than 500,000 dollars ! 
In the same year, Hayti sent more merchandize to the 
United States than almost any European power, except 
Great Britain, France, and Russia, and nearly as much 
as the latter. During the year 1840, the imports of 
foreign goods into the United States, amounted to 
107,141,519 dollars. The exports to 132,085,946 
dollars, or £27,000,000 sterling. The population of the 
United States is twenty times as large as that of Hayti : 
its trade is only twenty-seven times as large. 

In the year 1840, the declared value of British and 
Irish produce and manufactures exported from this 
country to Hayti, was ,£251,979, a larger amount than 
it sent either to Denmark, to Prussia, or to our own 



COMMERCE. Ill 

trading ports of Malta ; and more than half as much as 
it exported either to Mexico or to the great empire of 
China ! The total value of the produce and manu- 
factures of the United Kingdom, exported from this 
country in 1839, was £50,060,970. The total mean 
value of produce exported from Hayti, in the years 
1838 and 1839, as we have seen in the previous table, 
was £1,040,799. The population of Hayti may be 
estimated at 850,000; that of Great Britain and Ireland 
is twenty-seven millions. 

Thus we see that the exports of the United Kingdom, 
considered relatively in proportion to the number of 
its inhabitants, are as one -eighty-five to one; those 
from the United States of America, as one-sixty-five 
to one; those from Hayti, as one-twenty-five to one. 
So that Hayti, poor, and despised as she is, has a 
commerce, in native produce, nearly three-fourths 
as large, in proportion to her population, as our own 
United Kingdom, which is the great manufacturing mart 
of the world ; and seven-eighths as large as that of the 
United States, where the staple exports are produced 
by the labour of three millions of slaves ! The only 
disadvantage to Hayti in this comparison is, that Great 
Britain has an immense carrying trade: Hayti has 
none : but how can she be expected to raise a commerce 
of this kind without capital ; and how can capital be 
created whilst she continues to exclude foreigners from 
her soil, and whilst her institutions tend rather to depress 
than to encourage the industry of her people ? 

The following table exhibits a view of part of the 
commerce of Hayti for the year 1840. It gives the 
imports and exports of its two principal shipping ports 
only. When it was ut into my hands, the returns 



112 



COMMERCE. 



had not been received from the other ports of the 
island : — 



1840. — Geoss Return of British and Foreign Trade. 



ARRIVED. 



PORT-AU-PRINCE. 



DEPARTED. 



Nation. 



British... 
French. . . 
German .. 
Belgian... 
United States 
Swedish.. 



No. of 

Vessels. 



31 

15 

18 

1 

75 



Tons. 



5213 
8033 
2813 

300 
9167 

281 

20,812 



I Invoice 

Crew, value of 

Cargoes. 



290 £190,627 



176 
172 

15 
573 

17 



),870 
101,400 



109,122 
2,500 



1243 £478.519 



No. of 
Vessels. 



31 
23 

20 

1 



Tons, j Crew. 



4925 
4883 
3080 

300 
9143 

281 



247 
260 
184 

15 
538 

17 



Invoice 
value of 
Cargoes. 



£159,750 

131,054 

94,980 

7,300 

98,880 

1570 



152 i 22,612 1261 1 £493,434 



CAPE HAYTIEN. 



Nation, | v No ' ? f 
! \ essels. 


Tons. 


Crew. 


Invoice 
value of 
Cargoes. 


No. of 

Vessels. 


Tons. 


Crew. 


Invoice 
Value of 
Cargoes. 


British 

Haytien .... 

French 

Gentian 

American. . . 
Danish 


12 
3 

15 
7 

31 
2 


1671 
275 
2402 
1260 
4015 
126 


95 

18 
145 

81 
176 

16 


£43,183 

790 i 

56,097 

44,118 

46,030 ! 

3075 


14 
3 

14 
6 

31 
2 


2045 
275 
2179 
1170 

4070 
126 


113 

18 
132 

72 
1S1 

16 


£46,642 

1656 

59,945 

49,499 

53,«57 

1030 


70 9779 


531 


£193,293 


70 9865 532 ' £212,629 



Port-au-Prince and Cape Haytien . Imports £666,812. 
Exports £708,063. 

1840. — Exchange first six months, ten dollars to the 
pound sterling. 

Second six months, twelve and a half dollars. 

1841. — Thirteen dollars to thirteen and a half. 

The trade of Port-au-Prince, the capital, on an average 
of years, is nearly half that of the whole island : doubling 
therefore the amount of British goods imported, we have 
£380,000 as the invoice value of cargoes sent from the 
United Kingdom : take it at less than that sum — say 
£320,000, and it corresponds substantially with the 
declared value of the same goods at our own Custom- 



SUBSIDY TO FRANCE. 113 

house, only adding 25 per cent, for profit, charges, and 
risk. 

It is greatly to be lamented, that the commerce of 
Hayti, large as it is by comparison with that of many 
other nations, should remain so limited and stationary 
as it has done. Were the industry of the people 
brought properly to bear upon the soil, and were the 
juice of the sugar-cane manufactured into sugar for 
exportation, instead of being converted into a deleterious 
spirit which injures and degrades the consumers, the 
exchangeable products of the country might in a few 
years be multiplied five-fold — its debt to France, now a 
heavy burden, might be spe°dily paid off — its depre- 
ciated ourrency might be raised to par ; and its wealth 
ani reGDurc-}s mio;I±^ be greatly increased. 

The great and leading grievance complained of in the 
republic, is its enormous debt to France. The subsidy 
guaranteed by treaty to France in 1825, as an indemni- 
fication to the former French colonists, for their estates, 
was extorted at the cannon's mouth, The amount 
promised for this object was one-hundred and fifty 
millions of francs; and for the public edifices and 
fortifications, ( by a secret treaty) thirty millions of 
francs more ! Of this enormous subsidy, sixty millions 
of francs were actually paid in coffee and hard cash 
before the close of the year 1828, leaving a nominal 
debt then due to France, of one hundred and twenty 
millions of francs, or £5,000,000 sterling. The 
treasury of the island was by this time become ex- 
hausted, and the people discontented ; no new taxes 
could be imposed ; and it was found necessary, at 
the risk to the state of being pronounced bankrupt, 
to discontinue all further payments. 



114 SUBSIDY TO FRANCE. 

Iii the year 1838, Louis Phillippe rinding it 
impossible to secure the execution of the treaty of 
1825, entered into fresh negociations with President 
Boyer: and by a second treaty, reduced the debt 
claimable by the French government to half its former 
amount, or sixty millions of francs. In the years 
1838, 1839, and .1840, the Haytien government paid 
off by yearly instalments, 4,500,000 francs, leaving 
an actual balance, due at the commencement of 1841, 
of 55,500,000 francs, or £2,312,500. Besides this 
debt, on account of the original subsidy, the payment 
of which is to be by instalments, and to terminate in 
1867 : the Haytien government owes a considerable 
sum to the monied interests of France, on account of 
a loan of thirty millions of francs, advanced by Lafitte 
and Co., in the year 1825, which amounted at the same 
period to fourteen millions of francs, or £583,334 ; 
and which is now bearing interest at the rate of three 
per cent, per annum. This debt is in 14,000 coupons 
of a thousand francs each, of which number the govern- 
ment pays off at least six hundred every year. It does 
so by buying them up at their present reduced value 
of 600 francs per coupon, instead of 1000 francs, which 
is the nominal value. The loan was contracted for on 
the condition that the borrowers should pay a thousand 
francs for every eight hundred francs received in cash 
down. When the house of Lafitte and Co. became 
embarrassed, the head partner solicited President Boyer, 
to purchase of him a thousand coupons which he held in 
his own right, at the cost price of 800 francs each ; the 
President, instead of doing so, generously bought them at 
the price guaranteed by the government, allowing him 
to make a personal profit of £8000 by the transaction. 



SUBSIDY TO FRANCE. 115 

Such a ^circumstance reflects honour on the Haytien 
government, and tends to confirm the public judgment 
in its favour, as it manifests a determination on its part 
to pay every shilling of its present enormous debt. 
The total of that debt, with, and without interest, at 
the commencement of 1841, was £2,895,834! 

The government paper money in circulation, at the 
same period, was 3,500,000 Haytien dollars ; and there 
remained in the public treasury of Spanish dollars, 
1,300,000, which at the present depreciated value of 
the paper money, would be about sufficient to buy it 
up. The metallic currency of the island, is about 
2,000,000 Haytien dollars, equal in bullion to 500,000 
Spanish dollars. All the import ditties of the island 
are levied in gold and silver, and serve to pay off the 
debt to France, which consents to receive its annual 
instalments only in specie. These duties, amounted in 
1837, at w T hich period the treasury was empty, to : — 
701,166 dollars. 
in 1838 to 768,419 
„ 1839 „ 843,883 

„ 1840 „ gooooo f Account not yet made np, bat 
l not less than this sum. 



3,213,468 

Deduct paid to") 

France in these \ 2,000,000 

four years J 



1,213,468. leaving in the treasury 
when the account shall he made up, a sum certainly 
equal to the ahove, amounting in sterling value, to 
£250,000. 

Let us now look at the income and expenditure of the 
country in Haytien dollars, leaving out of consideration 



116 



REVENUE. 



the import duties received in Spanish money, which are 
raised to satisfy the instalments due to France. 

REVENUE. 

Haytien Dollars. 

1,380,356 
. 1,918,458 



1837 
1838 
1839 . 1,840,988 

1840, (estimated,) 1,900,000 



7,039,802 



EXPENDITURE. 

Hartien Dollars. 

1837 . • 2, 176,702 

1838 . 2,273,768 

1839 . . 2,112,290 

1840, (estimated,) 2,000,000 



8,562,850 
Deduct revenue 7,039,802 



1,523,048 



Thus we see that in four years there was a defi- 
ciency arising from the excess of expenditure above the 
income, of 1,523,048 Haytien dollars; and a surplus, in 
specie, from the import duties, above the sum called 
for to satisfy the claims of France, of 1,213,468 
Spanish dollars. The surplus in actual value is much 
larger than the deficiency. Hayti, therefore, indepen- 
dent of her home debt in depreciated paper, is solvent : 
her government, even on the present scale of income and 
expenditure, can go on, gradually extinguishing its 
foreign debt, and increasing its stores of gold and silver. 
But she owes a large debt to her people. The defi- 
ciency arising in former years from the excess of expen- 
diture above income has been met by an issue of paper 
money, and this money has gone on increasing, till it 
amounts in nominal value to 3,500,000 dollars. The 
paper is issued as representing Spanish dollars ; but it 
has gone gradually depreciating, till it has become worth 
only one-third of its specified value. A doubloon 
worth sixteen Spanish dollars, will often readily purchase 
in the market forty-eight dollars in paper. What 



REVENUE. 117 

under these circumstances, ought the Haytien govern- 
ment to do ? Should it buy up its own paper money 
at this immense discount, and replace it, with a currency 
of gold and silver on a par with that of Europe and 
America? By such a measure it would compound 
like a bankrupt, and break faith with its subjects : 
or should it strive by measures of reduction and 
economy to put itself in the situation of being able to 
withdraw a portion of it every year . from circulation, 
and thus restore the remainder to par? The latter is 
the only plan that an honest government can pursue. 
Numerous suggestions on the compounding plan, have 
been made to the President who has wisely rejected 
them all. Let us now see how the opposite course 
would act. The income of Hayti, independent of its 
import duties, has gone on gradually increasing since 
1837, whilst its expenditure has gradually lessened. 
By a very small measure of further retrenchment and 
economy the two sides of the balance sheet may be 
made equal. The government notes now in circulation 
amount to 3,500,000 dollars; the cash in the treasury 
to 1,400,000 dollars. The absolute deficiency, there- 
fore, valuing the notes at par, is little more than two 
millions of dollars. Supposing it impossible to reduce 
the expenditure, so far as to obtain a surplus of income 
from the common sources of internal revenue ; and no 
one who looks at the immense standing army can allow 
this for a moment ; there are still within the reach of 
the executive ample means of liquidating this debt, 
without infringing in any degree on the national honour. 
The annual excess of income in Spanish money paid 
at the custom house for import duties, after satisfying 
the claims of France, is 300,000 dollars. Why suffer 



118 REVENUE. 

this surplus to be added every year to the cash of the 
treasury, where it lies in mortmain ? How far better, 
instead of insisting for the future on the payment of 
the import duties altogether in gold, to allow the 
merchant to pay them part in gold, and part in notes — 
say 700,000 dollars in cash, and 200,000 in paper ! By 
this means, one-tenth of the paper debt of the country 
would be extinguished every year, as at the end of ten 
years all the notes in circulation will have been with- 
drawn, except 1,500,000 dollars, and the government, 
like a good banker, will have cash in its coffers to pay 
these on demand. In ten years Hayti would be out of 
debt. For every one of the ten years that such a 
transaction would be in progress, the state would have 
100,000 dollars in gold and silver to bestow on works 
of public utility : this sum would more than equal in 
value the 200,000 dollars of paper money withdrawn ; 
and though the circulating medium would be less in 
nominal amount, it would represent and give value to a 
larger amount of commercial transactions than before. 
In connexion with this change, the present debased 
silver coin of the country must be converted into coin 
of the same value as other countries : this would be no 
loss to the holders, because if made of three or four times 
as much value as before, it would purchase three or four 
times as much merchandise. To effect these improve- 
ments with advantage to all parties, and to regulate 
the exchange with foreign nations, there should be 
established a national bank. The House of Assembly 
is" crying out against the hardship of paying all the 
import duties in cash, and begs the President to initiate 
a law to relieve the country from this pressure ; the 
President wishes for a national bank, and entreats the 



REVENUE. 



119 



other branches of the legislature to assist him in forming 
such an establishment on a solid basis. The above 
plan would meet every difficulty ; and, if carried out 
with judgment, might probably be made to satisfy all 
parties. By such a measure, the credit of the republic 
would be sustained. The merchant would be benefited 
by being put into possession of greater value for his 
paper money than he imagines it to be worth; as this 
paper, in proportion as it lessened in amount, would go 
on increasing in value, till it arrived at par; the con- 
sumer would be benefited, because the merchant, from 
his increased capital and security, would be satisfied 
with less profit, and goods would thus fall in price; 
and all classes of the public functionaries would be 
benefited, because they would receive better pay from 
the increased value of the currency, in which their 
respective salaries would be paid. 

To complete our view of the finances of the republic 
of Hayti, it only remains to us to exhibit the details of 
its income and expenditure. The following table gives 
a general result of the receipts and disbursements of the 
treasury for the year 1839 : — 

Receipts. 



At the Ports of \ lm ^%^ eS 


Export and 

Territorial 

duties. 


All other 
taxes. 


Total Revenue. 


Port-au-Prince... 

Jeremie 

Cayes 


doll. c. 

450,130 92 
5,219 42 

108,747 76 
64,824 67 
26,622 59 

156,947 1 
18,422 66 
47,107 5 


doll. C. 
516,126 41 

13,679 4 
175,628 85 
133,334 12 

77,267 5 
201,957 71 

33,037 96 

57,998 5 


doll. c 
290,396 98 
16,845 1 
60/205 15 
28.927 96 
35,127 66 
92,466 3 
37,707 4 
36,144 47 


doll. c. 
1,256,654 31 

35,743 47 
344,581 76 
227,086 75 
139,017 30 
451,370 75 

89,167 66 
141,249 57 


Jacmel 

Gonaives 

Cape-Haytien . . 
Porte-Platte.... 
Santo Domingo. 




878,022 8 


1,209,029 19 


597,820 30 


2,684,871 57 



Duties on Imports 843,883 

Duties on Consignments 34,139 



120 REVENUE. 

Disbursements. 



Public works. 


Civil service. 


Army and Navy. 


National Debt 


Total. 


doli. C 

39,889 60 


doll. c.| doll. c. 
610,699 38| 1,378.611 34 


doll. C. 

469,373 63 


doll. c. 
2,498,573 95 


Paper money burnt. . 


133,381 














2,631,954 95 



Balance Sheet. 

dollars c. 
There remained in the public treasury, 31st Dec. 1838 766,246 12 
General receipts of the Republic, during the year } 2 fifi . 8 _, rg 

Notes issued during the same year . 333,800 

Total . 3,784,917 70 
dollars c. 
Disbursements of the year 1839 2,498,573 95 

Notes of issue burnt during the year 133,381 

2,631,954 95 



Remaining in the treasury, 31st Dec. 1839. 1,152,962 75 
Detail of the money remaining in the treasury. 

Foreign money National money. 

At Port-au-Prince . 801,770 87 139,498 91 

„ Jeremie . . . 1721 83 7,261 45 

„ Cayes . . . 4249 92 60,€28 10 

„ Jacmel . . 9841 98 54,640 68 

„ Gonaives . . . 1181 73 5247 16 

„CapeHaytien . . 18,715 91 8933 67 

„ Porte Platte . . 5186 92 4636 48 

„ Santo Domingo . 7447 56 9217 5 
" Envois de fonds par mandate aregler entre 
la caisse du Port-au-Prince et celles du Cap 

Haytien et des Cayes" . . . 12,782 52 

Monies of all sorts . Dol. 1,152,962 75 

The balance sheet of the republic, for the year 1840, 
would exhibit a statement more favourable than the one 



RURAL PROPERTIES. 121 

just given; but I could not obtain a copy of it before 
we left the country. 

Our next statistical inquiry, one of great importance, 
relates to the employments of the people. A report is^ 
sent every year to the President, from the commanders 
of the several arrondissements^ or districts; in which 
they profess to show how the lands are cultivated — what 
progress has been made in agriculture and commerce — 
how many estates are worked — how many abandoned — 
and how many freeholders occupy land in their own 
right. This branch of statistical and general informa- 
tion, if carried out by enlightened men, would prove 
highly valuable in any country, as illustrating its 
condition ; but, unfortunately for Hayti, the men to 
whom this task is confided are many of them illiterate, 
with narrow views, who enter upon it unwillingly, and 
whose statements are consequently often meagre, ill- 
arranged, and most unsatisfactory. The reports from all 
the arrondissements for several years past, were put into 
my hands by the government, and I have endeavoured 
to compile from them a general statement; which, if it 
does not satisfy the reader, and put him in possession of 
all the facts which such reports ought to convey, will at 
least throw some light on the present state and condition 
of the Haytien people, and tend to silence the unjust and 
ill-founded clamour of pro-slavery partizans against them. 
It should first be premised, that the disbanded soldiers of 
the armies that served in the revolutionary and civil wars, 
were rewarded, at the commencement of the republic 
under President Boyer, with a grant of nine acres 
of land each; the non-commissioned and superior officers 
receiving more in proportion to their rank. The labourers 
on Christophe's estates in the north of the island, availed 

G 



122 RURAL PROPERTIES. 

themselves of this donative, and settled on their own 
freeholds, thus imitating the conduct of their brethren 
of the south, who had already done so in great numbers. 
Many of the large coffee estates, and some of the sugar 
plantations of the old colonists, were broken up and 
parted piece-meal to the new claimants; and land was 
given on mountain passes, where no cultivation had ever 
before been carried on. From this cause the small pro- 
perties, now in existence, are very numerous. In the 
year 1839, there were altogether 46,610 such properties 
under good cultivation. The number may not be exact, 
as no returns on this head were made from the arrondis- 
sements of Tiburon, St. Jague, and St. Mark, and the 
total result is only arrived at by approximation. 

On the subject of population we shall have to speak 
presently; but taking its amount for argument's sake 
to be 800,000, and the number of inhabitants employed 
in agriculture to be 700,000, or seven-eighths of the 
whole ; which, to persons who have visited the island, 
will not appear an improper estimate; we find fifteen 
individuals to each rural property. A large number of 
small estates are left out of this account, which are said 
to be badly cultivated, or neglected. Taking the number 
of each separate family on an average, at five persons, 
husband, wife, and three children, we arrive at the con- 
clusion, that the head of every third family in the state 
is engaged in cultivating his own freehold ; a propor- 
tion of independent proprietors, such as perhaps scarcely 
any other country in the world can exhibit. The number 
of acres cultivated by these small proprietors, varies from 
nine to thirty ; many of them keep horses, asses, cows, 
and goats : they raise sufficient provisions of the bread 
kind, such as yams, plantains, and bananas, for the main 



THE SHARE SYSTEM. ' 123 

support of their families ; they kill hogs for meat, and 
they dispose of their coffee, cotton, hemp, castor oil, and 
fruit, at the public market for money, to purchase 
clothing, furniture, and other necessaries. The houses 
they live in, though poorly furnished, are decent habi- 
tations; and many of them have gardens attached, 
neatly fenced in with bamboo, or with logwood, or aloe 
hedges. The labourers of the country, who with their 
families constitute the other two-thirds of the rural 
population, are of two classes, those who work for 
given rate of wages, and those who work for shares of 
the produce on the estates of the large proprietors. The 
latter are probably the most numerous, and deserve a 
particular mention. The Rural Code recognizes and 
defines the rights and duties of master and servant, and 
interferes with the latter in a manner so severe and 
arbitrary, as to have lost its effect. The common people 
refuse to sell their labour subject to its provisions, or 
utterly disregard them. The labourers who work on 
shares, to receive part of the produce at the end of the 
season, are mostly located on the properties where they 
work, and occupy the huts and cabins, which, under the 
old regime were inhabited by the slaves. 

Some gangs of labourers work for one-half of the 
total produce of the estate, raising food for themselves 
at their own expense ; and others for a quarter of the 
produce, under an agreement that the proprietor should 
keep them in provisions. Which plan is the most 
economical to the labourer and his family, is doubtful : 
on some estates, one plan is probably the best, and on 
other estates the other ; but that both are prejudicial 
to the landed proprietors and to the country at large, is 
very evident. Nothing but the resemblance which such 

g 2 



124 THE SHARE SYSTEM. 

a system bears to freedom and independence could recon- 
cile trie people to its continuance for any great length of 
time : the truth is, that notwithstanding the self-conse- 
quence it imparts to the labourer, making him, in his 
own estimation, almost as great and important as a 
freeholder in his own right ; it works badly for all the 
parties concerned. The master cannot say to his men, 
go into such a field and dig cane holes, the* clouds are 
gathering and we must get in the young plants — or 
weed such a field, — or prune the coffee trees; neither 
can he send a band of young people at his pleasure to 
pick the coffee berries as they ripen, or select the bad 
berries, when pulped and dried, from the good ones. 
Every servant, if we may so speak, is master of his own 
house and his own hours ; and considers himself at 
liberty to work with his family almost at what time, 
and in what manner he pleases. He will not always 
submit to the dictum of the proprietor, nor always 
conform to the regulations imposed on him for the 
general good. 

The labourers, from this cause, become jealous of each 
other : if they work together they cannot agree among 
themselves, as to the exact quantity of labour to be per- 
formed by each : one man is weaker than another ; one 
is more disposed to drink and saunter, and be idle, than 
another. The whole twenty families, in common, are to 
share half the gross produce, or one-fourth of it, as the 
case may be; but who shall measure the exact proportion 
that falls in justice to the lot of each ? 

To remedy the inconvenience arising from this want 
of agreement among the labourers, as to the exact part 
which every one should perform; the proprietor often, 
finds it necessary to divide his fields among them, allow- 



THE SHARE SYSTEM. 125 

ing one family five acres, by task work, another ten, and 
a third twenty, according to the nature of the land, and 
the sort of produce to be raised upon it. By this means, 
he loses all the benefits of the concentration of labour to 
particular spots at particular seasons, and much loss of 
crop ensues ; or if he wants, and is resolved to have some 
needful work done in haste, which requires a larger 
number of labourers than are allotted to it, he has to 
bribe others to come in and help them, by the offer of a 
drink of rum or tafia. The aim of a proprietor is to 
get as many families to band together as can act in 
concert without jarring, or jealousy, and to induce them, 
by kindness, to do as much work as possible for his own 
interest as well as theirs : in some cases, he succeeds tole- 
rably well ; but one man disposed to be sullen or idle, 
or who is unable to work from sickness, throws the 
whole system into disorder. One great evil of it is 
this, that every labourer knows that he does not suffer 
alone for his own idleness or neglect: his fellow-labourers 
share the consequences of his misconduct in some degree, 
and his master in a still greater. If he alone had to 
bear the loss, he would be more disposed to fill up his 
time diligently, and do his best. 

The Rural Code professes to meet all cases of mis- 
conduct arising out of this state of things, and gives 
summary power to justices of the peace to inflict mulcts 
and penalties. To say nothing however, of the loss of 
time, and of the vexation to both parties, in constantly 
repairing to a justice for his decision, the proprietor 
himself is afraid to act on this principle to any extent, 
lest by doing so, he should lose his labourers altogether. 
How different is the system of wages, and how much 
more advantageous to the labourers themselves ! One 



226 



CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. 



governing mind surveys a large property ; and, taking 
advantage of circumstances and seasons, directs the 
labourers, few or many, as the occasion may require, to 
the very spot and to the very kind of work where their 
labour may find the most profitable direction : every 
labourer devotes his skill to that particular employment 
in which he most excels, and receives pay in proportion 
to the work done, and to the manner of doing it. By 
this means a larger produce is raised, and a larger 
share of that produce goes to the hands that assist in 
raising it, 

A correspondence has been carried on in one of the 
public journals, between some of the proprietors of sugar 
estates in the Cut de Sac as to which is most beneficial, 
the system of shares, or the system of wages. Political 
economy I think would answer the question, without any 
hesitation, in favour of wages. To this point, the minds 
of proprietors are fast tending; and to this point, the 
labourers themselves, afraid as they are of losing a jot of 
their independence, are in some places reluctantly coming 
round. The military system encourages idleness in one 
direction ; that of working by shares on the produce 
of estates seems to bestow a bounty upon it in another ; 
ignorance deepens the evil by teaching men to be con- 
tent with a low state of physical existence; and the 
common people, from the operation of all these various 
causes of discouragement and decay, exhibit an aspect 
far from attractive. 

The poet Goldsmith, in describing the peasantry of 
Switzerland, has too correctly, and with much greater 
truth, described the condition of the people of Hayti. 



POPULATION OF HAYTI. 127 

u Unknown to them, when sensual pleasures cloy 
To fill the languid pause with finer joy ; 
Unknown those powers that raise the soul to flame, 
Catch every nerve, and vibrate through the frame. 
Their level life is but a smouldering fire, 
Unquench'd by want, unfann'd by strong desire ; 
Unfit for raptures ; or if raptures cheer 
On some high festival of once a year, 
In wild excess the vulgar breast takes fire, 
Till, buried in debauch, the bliss expire. 
But not their joys alone thus coarsely flow ; 
Their morals, like their pleasures, are but low ; 
For, as refinement stops, from sire to son, 
Unaltered, unimproved, the manners run ; 
And love and friendships finely pointed dart 
Falls blunted from each indurated heart." 

The Traveller. 

A people circumstanced like the Haytiens, having 
such ready means of obtaining a livelihood might be 
thought likely to increase and multiply beyond the 
common ratio of countries, where the soil is less fertile, 
and the seasons are less congenial. But idleness, and 
vice are a curse on any land ; whilst honest industry 
and enterprise often succeed in converting a barren soil 
into fruitful fields. 

The population of Hayti increases, but it does not, 
it cannot, increase so fast as it would do, if the citizens 
were a moral race, and if the institutions of the state, 
instead of depressing industry, could be said to encourage 
it. The amount of population is a problem which no 
writer has been able correctly to solve : the number of 
inhabitants in what was once the Spanish part of the 
island is pretty well ascertained by continuing the mode 
of taking a census at certain periods which has long 
prevailed there : in the French territory, where the 
population is most dense, the number can only be 
arrived at by approximation. A census was ordered 



128 POPULATION OF HAYTI. 

by the government to be taken many years ago in 
the French province ; but the ordinance was issued at 
a most unhappy time. The treaty had just then been 
completed with France, to grant to that country an 
immense subsidy as a compensation to the ex-colonists 
for the loss of their territory ; and the people being 
afraid that a census was only intended as a preliminary 
to a poll-tax to assist in paying it, threw every obstacle 
in its way, and the plan was abandoned. No systematic 
attempt of the kind has since been made. 

In the year 1789, before the revolutionary war had 
begun its horrible ravages, the people of the French 
provinces were thus enumerated : — whites, 30,831 ; 
free people of colour, 24,000; town slaves, 46,000; 
rural slaves, 434,429 ; total, 535,260. 

The losses of the Haytiens from the year 1791 to 
1804, when Dessalines proclaimed the independence of 
the island, and made himself Emperor, were incalculably 
great : by battles, massacres, blood-hounds, drowning, 
and other atrocities, the population had been thinned to 
a dreadful extent. By a census, such as it was, taken 
during the short reign of this tyrant the whole popu- 
lation, black and coloured, (the whites had disappeared), 
was estimated at about 380,000, shewing a disappear- 
ance in thirteen years of more than 150,000 people ! 

During the destructive civil war that succeeded the 
death of Dessalines, which was carried on between the 
north and the south, under Christophe and Petion, a 
great number of the people fell in battle, and the 
springs of industry were everywhere relaxed : the popu- 
lation, however, rather increased than diminished; an 
estimate formed, by Christophe, about the middle of his 
reign, represented the total amount at 393 5 000. Since 



POPULATION OF HAYTI. 129 

that period, thirty years have elapsed ; the country has 
been mostly at peace; the disbanded soldiery have 
become freeholders, or returned to labour in the fields of 
the new proprietors — and the population has greatly 
augmented ; according to the ordinary rate of increase 
under favourable circumstances, it ought at the present 
moment, to amount on the French side to eight hun- 
dred thousand; and, including the Spanish provinces, 
to at least a million. Humboldt estimates the present 
population of the whole island at eight hundred thousand, 
and this estimate, from all the inquiries I have made, 
and the information afforded me, seems more likely than 
any other to be correct. The population of the Spanish, 
or eastern side, is not larger, or very little so, than when 
the country was a colony of France: this arises from 
the large migration of later years from that part of the 
island to the French provinces, in consequence of the 
trade in cattle having ceased to afford them employ- 
ment. Among the papers that I solicited of the govern- 
ment, were returns of the registered births, burials, 
and marriages in the whole island for the last ten 
years : these were promised me, but not being ready 
when we left the island, the Secretary of State, General 
Inginac, promised to send them after me to England : 
they have not yet, however, arrived; and if in my pos- 
session, it is very doubtful whether they would throw 
any extraordinary light on the question, owing to the 
acknowledged vast deficiency in the registration of 
deaths. One document of this kind, and only one, has 
been put into my hands: this relates to the Spanish pro- 
vinces, and is tolerably clear and explicit. I here insert 
it, together with the comments of the able senator who 
took the pains to compile it. 

g3 



130 



POPULATION OF HAYTI. 



Department of the South-east. 

Statistical Table of the Nine Communes of this Department. 

Anno 1838. 



Communes. 


Births. 


Deaths. 


Marriages. 


Estimated 
population. 


Santa Domingo 

Monte Plata 


506 
65 
33 

220 
80 

279 
52 
79 

138 


218 

28 

8 

82 

33 

133 
38 
33 
41 


61 
15 

9 
25 

4 
35 
10 
10 
20 


14,674 
1885 

957 
6380 
2320 
8091 
1508 
2291 
4002 


Bayaguana 


San Cristabal 


Higuey 


Seybo 


Samana 


Llanos 


Bony 






1452 


614 


189 


42,108 



Department of the North-east. 

Statistical Table of the Nine Communes of this Department. 
Anno 1838. 



Communes. 


Births. 


Deaths. 


Marriages. 


Estimated 
population. 


Santiago 


647 
287 
298 
106 

49 
233 
147 
180 

59 


241 
132 
102 

49 
7 

89 
8 

85 
3 


128 
54 

11 

8 
30 
33 
32 
17 


18,567 
8323 
8642 
3074 
1421 
6757 

, 4263 
5220 
1711 


La Vega 


Moca 


Cotuy 


Monte Christi 

Porte Platte 

San Jose de las Matas 
Macory 


Aitamira 




2006 


716 


379 


57,978 



Remarks by the Compiler. 

" The population of the above department, after adding 
the increase arising from births, amounts to 57,978 ; but 
as there are some evident omission on the part of the 
officers who keep the registers, we may safely reckon it 
at sixty thousand. The larger proportionate increase in 
the north above the south, arises from the fact, that the 
people continue to emigrate from the southern communes 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 131 

to the north of the island, where the cultivation of coffee 
and tobacco goes on fast increasing. I say fast increasing, 
but I here only speak comparatively, as taking into 
consideration the favourableness of the climate, and the 
fertility of the ground, the produce ought to be four-fold 
what it is. 

"The children born in wedlock, as compared with 
those that are illegitimate, are as one in four. 

" There remains in the department of the north-east 
but one single primary school, 

a Crime being everywhere," continues the compiler, 
u in the inverse of civilisation, what are the best means 
of improving the condition of the commonwealth ? The 
President is an enlightened man, but the payment of the 
national debt absorbs the attention of his government. 
He who has succeeded in putting an end to our civil 
dissensions, who has united, under the banner of liberty, 
the whole territory of the republic, who has happily 
negotiated the country's independence, cannot fail, as 
soon as circumstances permit, to turn his thoughts to 
those points that concern the civil advancement of the 
people. He will fix his attention — 

" 1st. Upon a good system of popular education. 

" 2nd. Upon a penitentiary system for the reform of 
criminals. 

" 3rd. On a better police and gen'd'arraerie. 

" 4th. On the establishment of municipal corporations, 
for self-government in the towns. 

" 5th. On the augmentation of the national income, 
and the diminution of its expenditure, which will prove 
to be no paradox, but a reality to be readily accom- 
plished for the public good — by which means the govern- 
ment will be better administered, the public treasures 



132 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 

will be increased ; and those who rule, and those that are 
ruled, will both be increasingly happy. 

" 6th. On a plan for the encouragement of good 
domestic servants, and the punishment of bad ones. 

"7th. On the priesthood — good and indefatigable 
pastors, who shall preach sound morality and the doc- 
trines of the gospel; and who, without distinction, shall 
be paid for their services out of the public treasury. 

64 8th. On giving protection to the solemn institution 
of marriage, to institutions of benevolence, to agriculture, 
commerce, and industry. 

" 9th. On improved public roads and highways/' 

The foregoing observations of one of the most enlight- 
ened men of Hayti, who now fills the honourable office of 
President of the Senate, and who knows, better than most 
men, the real state and condition of his fellow-country- 
men, are entitled to the serious consideration of his own 
government, and of all persons who have the welfare of 
Hayti at heart. In glancing at the tables above given, 
it cannot fail to strike even the superficial reader, how 
evidently untrustworthy are the registers of deaths. If 
the increase of population be every year estimated by 
the increase of births over deaths, as exhibited in the 
civil records, its progress must appear enormous; but 
this is not the case in the Spanish territory, as a census, 
. according to long custom, is taken every year, and serves 
to check and correct the registers. It then appears, 
that the eastern provinces, which, in point of territory, 
embrace two-thirds of the island, has a scattered popu- 
lation of only 102,000 persons. Well may the extensive 
plain, which the eye of Columbus surveyed with so 
much astonishment from the top of the mountains in the 
range of Monte Christi, be denominated " La despob- 



V 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 133 

lada," or the uninhabited ! Were the French provinces 
of Hayti no better peopled, in proportion, than those 
on the Spanish side, the whole island would be one com- 
parative wilderness. We have no means of arriving 
satisfactorily at what is the actual total number of the 
inhabitants on the French side : but the most probable 
conjecture would lead us to consider it about three- 
quarters of a million, and thus to fix the entire jpopula- 
tion of H ayti at 850,000. The government of the 
country represents it at a million. 

The registered births, which are the record of 
baptisms, and therefore presumed to be correct, are, 
according to the above tables, as one to thirty of the 
presumed population ; a calculation which agrees very 
nearly with the experience of Great Britain and some 
other nations. Allowing the population of Hayti, as a 
new country, to increase in a somewhat greater pro- 
portion than that of Great Britain, which we can 
scarcely doubt to be the case ; we no longer wonder that 
it should have nearly doubled itself in thirty years. The 
marriages are very few indeed, amounting only to one in 
two hundred and twenty- three annually. In England 
and Wales, in 1831, the proportion was as one to one 
hundred and twenty-three; and it must be observed, 
that in the Spanish provinces, from which the above 
enumeration is given, marriages are supposed to be 
much more common than in other parts. What a 
mournful exhibition is thus presented to us of the morals 
of Hayti ! How earnestly must the friends of freedom, 
and of good order in civil society, desire amelioration in 
the institutions of the country ! 



]34 CARNIVAL. 



CHAPTER VII. 

CARNIVAL AT PORT-AU PRINCE — VISIT TO THE CUL DE 
SAC SUGAR PLANTATIONS — DISTILLERIES CONSUMP- 
TION OF ARDENT SPIRITS — JOURNEY TO LE GRAND 

FOND JOURNEY BY LEOGANE OVER THE MOUNTAIN 

TO JACMEL — -RETURN TO THE CAPITAL. 

During our stay at Port-au-Prince we sometimes rode 
out on horseback among the neighbouring villas, or to 
take a glance at the sugar plantations at some distance 
from the city. On three or four occasions, we were 
invited to partake of country hospitalities ; and we 
greatly enjoyed both the company we met with, and 
the picturesque scenery we surveyed. Doctor Smith, a 
physician, son-in-law to General Inginac, has a hand- 
some villa about two miles from the capital, where we 
passed a long and pleasant day. Early in the morning, 
a travelling carriage drawn by two mules and a strong 
jackass all abreast, and guided by a postilion, conveyed 
us to his house. The custom of the country prescribes 
a cup of coffee at rising from bed : a second breakfast, 
served a la fourehette, with cutlets, boiled rice, sweet 
potatoes, hot bread, tea and coffee, follows at eleven 
o'clock : the dinner hour is often protracted to six or 
seven o'clock in the evening. On this occasion, we met 
at the dinner table several gentlemen, one of whom was 
the President of the Senate before-mentioned, and 
another the procureur or State-attorney of Jacmel, who 



CARNIVAL. 



135 



seemed gratified in being able to answer our inquiries 
with regard to the habits and condition of the people 
in his own district. The President of the Senate, when 
a young man, accompanied Stephen Grellet, a minister 
of the Society of Friends, alluded to in a former chapter 
of this work, to a religious meeting which he held in 
the Freemasons Hail; and remarked, in reference to 
the circumstance, which seemed to have made a deep 
impression on his memory, " I assure you that your 
Society is held in much veneration here." All the party 
present treated us with the utmost kindness : and ex- 
pressed their gratification at receiving visitors who 
desired the welfare of their native land, and who came 
to examine their institutions with a friendly eye. In 
walking over the doctors grounds, we saw a favourite 
riding horse lying on the ground, with his thigh and 
leg frightfully swollen, from the bite of a tarantula. 
In the evening we made a short excursion to a neigh- 
bouring property, laid out in beautiful order, and com- 
bining many advantages of nature and art. The 
gardens were admirably kept up; the trees that 
adorned them were lofty and noble ; the tropical shrubs 
were in full flower, and the grand ocean formed part 
of the prospec^. The w T eather was pleasantly cool, the 
thermometer varying from 71° at sunrise, to 80 o at noon. 
On our return at night to the city, we witnessed one 
of those strange sights which are common in Roman 
Catholic countries, but which we had never seen before. 
The carnival of " Shrove Tuesday," called here the Mar- 
digras, had commenced, and the streets for this and 
several succeeding days were abandoned to public 
amusement. Great numbers of the people were 
dressed in masquerade, some in rich and expensive 



136 VISIT TO THE CUL DE SAC. 

oriental costume, and moved about on foot, on horse- 
back, and in carriages, either alone, or in groups, and 
silently saluted the passers by, or entered into houses 
to receive such entertainment as the inmates proffered. 
A few groups were attended by musicians with the 
' flute and violin, and bands of music paraded the city. 
Some of the dresses were exceedingly grotesque, and 
gave rise to repeated sallies of mirth ; but there was 
more of order and decency in the whole proceedings 
than could have been reasonably looked for in such a 
community. There is much more foolery, according to 
the testimony of travellers, in Naples and the Italian 
cities, than we observed in Port-au-Prince. 
f One of the pleasantest journeys we performed was to 
| the extensive sugar plain, called Le Cul de Sac. Early 
one morning, accompanied by our friend the Wesley an 
missionary, and a servant as our guide, we set off on 
horseback to Mocquet, a property belonging to three 
brothers, who cultivate this and another estate in sugar, 
and manufacture the syrup into tafia, a sort of fiery rum, 
much in favour with the common people as a customary 
beverage. This estate has a hundred and twenty acres 
in cane, and with the syrup expressed from it, and with 
what is bought in addition from the small proprietors 
around them, the owners make 1200 barrels of spirit 
yearly. After breakfast, accompanied by our host, 
who ordered his private carriage and, horses to be made 
ready for our use, we travelled over a good road, formed 
in the bottom of a watercourse, which was now dry, 
to an estate belonging to the Treasurer-general of 
the island. Here we found the sugar mill in action; 
and the labourers actively engaged in making sugar. 
The land on this property and in the region generally, 



VISIT TO THE CUL DE SAC. 137 

though of excellent quality, and admirably fitted to 
the growth of the sugar cane, produces much less sugar 
than the lands of Jamaica : the canes are less in size, 
owing to the want of labourers to keep them clean ; 
and they are renewed by young plants less frequently. 
Instead of planting cane every three or four years, as in 
the English colonies, they leave the fields to the rattoon, 
and gather a scanty harvest from the same plants for ten, 
twelve, or fifteen years in succession. We saw no plough 
at work any where. To shew how extremely fertile 
the soil is, and how much it might be made to produce 
under good cultivation, the Chief Justice of the Court 
of Cassation, whose property we next visited, assured us 
that from two and a half carreaux of virgin land, equal 
to seven and a half English acres, which he had lately 
broken up and planted w r ith cane, he had obtained 
during the first season a quantity of syrup, equal to 
60,000 lbs of sugar, or, to thirty hogsheads, of a ton 
each ! In Jamaica, new cane will sometimes return 
three hogsheads of sugar per acre, besides rum ; but 
four hogsheads would be considered an immense harvest. 
On reaching the habitation of the Chief Justice, we 
were delighted to find him, like a modern Cincinnatus, 
in his rustic dress, surrounded, in his large hall, by im- 
plements of husbandry, and with the floors of his apart- 
ments covered with various field and garden seeds spread 
out to dry. With a noble air he rose to meet us, gave 
us a most polite and cordial reception, and entertained 
us with discourse that was really eloquent. This public 
functionary is one of the few proprietors who are 
aiming to improve agriculture by the application of 
large capital to the soil, and by introducing improve- 
ments in every direction. The share system of cultiva- 



138 CONSUMPTION OF ARDENT SPIRITS. 

tion, however, leaves him and the neighbouring pro- 
prietors too much dependent on the caprice of their 
labourers, whom they are often obliged to allure to hard 
work at particular seasons, by the promise of strong 
drink ! He took us to his distillery and storehouses, 
and shewed us, with evident satisfaction, his long 
range of vats, filled with rum of different ages, some 
of which he tapped for his brother planter, to taste. 
At this spot, we learned the following appalling par- 
ticulars relative to the consumption of ardent spirit in 
Hayti. The great seat of the spirit manufacture in 
Hayti is Cayes, as Schedam is in Holland. Here are 
manufactured 37,000 barrels of proof spirit yearly. In 
the whole island, more than 60,000 barrels are made. 
Besides this, there are imported, it is said, 20,000 barrels 
from Cuba ; but the authorities deny the fact. Taking 
the general consumption therefore at only 60,000 barrels 
of sixty gallons each, we have an average consumption 
of four gallons and a quarter, to every individual of the 
whole population ! This, it is true, is the only strong 
drink of the country, except the wines of France, which 
are consumed to some extent in the towns and cities. In 
Great Britain and Ireland, each individual, on an average, 
consumes more than one gallon of proof spirit, and 
half a hogshead of beer, besides cider and wine. Which 
of the two countries consumes in proportion the most 
alcohol, it would not perhaps be very easy to determine : 
both are deeply guilty in this respect ; but the practice 
of Hayti receives some palliation in the mind of a con- 
siderate man, from the circumstance, that its people are 
ignorant of the nature of true happiness, and have no 
idea in what it consists. Temperance Societies have 
been attempted among them ; but there being no religious 



COUNTRY HOSPITALITY, 139 

principle in the land to fall back upon, they fail for 
want of support. The want of education, and the 
state of the church, and of the army, tend to injure 
and demoralize Hayti : ardent spirit is another grand 
cause of the national degradation. 

On our return to Mocquet, we passed within a 
short distance of i6 La Croix des Bouquets/' a village 
memorable in the annals of Haytien warfare, the seat of 
many a bloody skirmish ; and on reaching the planta- 
tion found a handsome dinner awaiting us after our 
long morning's toil. The planters in these plains have a 
supply of delicacies for the table ready at a moment's 
notice. Some land turtle were kept secured, by a cord, 
tied to the leg of each, in a small pond near the house ; 
and one of these, and some good fowls, with a variety of 
vegetables, rice, and preserved fruits, made us an excel- 
lent repast. The evening was delightful when we 
remounted our horses to return to Port-au-Prince; but 
the sun was soon lost to us, and we passed through 
the city gate in darkness, delighted with our day's 
excursion, glad to be at home again, and very weary. 
Among the many kind invitations we received, was one 
from Senator B. Ardouin, to spend a day or two at his 
country villa on the Black Mountain, twenty miles 
from the city. We had often heard of Le Grand fond 
— the awful abyss — the name by which the spot is 
designated, on which his house stands ; and we accepted 
the invitation with much pleasure. 

Rarely does it fall to the lot of a traveller, in either 
hemisphere, to witness the beauty and grandeur of 
natural scenery which met our eye in this memorable 
journey. Rising at three o'clock in the morning, we 
set out, accompanied by the senator, and three other 



140 



JOURNEY TO LE GRAND FOND. 



gentlemen — six of us in all— attended by two servants. 
The waning moon bad nearly set, but the stars shone 
brightly and lighted our path for many miles, as we 
slowly ascended the rough road to Petionville. This 
place was chosen by the government for a second 
capital, and the lands around it were sold, and the state 
buildings erected with a view to that end, but hitherto 
the town has made but little progress. About a mile 
further onward, we began the steep ascent of the hills. 
As we rose gradually above the plains, grand and 
beautiful prospects disclosed themselves on every side : 
the city of Port-au-Prince, with its numerous shipping, 
lay at our feet ; on our right hand, was a chain of lofty 
hills, green and well wooded ; and on our left, the 
extensive plain of the Cul de Sac, sprinkled with 
sugar estates, and enlivened by the habitations of 
wealthy proprietors. Two large lakes, were conspicuous 
in the distance ; and beyond these lay a ridge of moun- 
tains that stretched eastward as far as the eye could 
reach. Often did we stop to rest, and gaze on the 
wonderful scenes around us. Palm trees in great 
number, and of extraordinary height and gracefulness, 
decorated the mountain sides, and added to the interest 
of the foreground. On reaching the top of the black 
mountain, the prospect was magnificent. We were now 
standing on an eminence six thousand feet above the 
plain, just at the point, where, in tropical regions, the 
fir and the pine begin to be luxuriant, a forest of which 
abounding in trees eighty and a hundred feet in height, 
was spread out before us, through which or on its borders 
we rode for several miles. The winds agitated the 
branches, and occasioned at times a loud cracking and 
rustling noise, which so much resembled that of a 



JOURNEY TO LE GRAND FOND. 141 

river running over a rocky bed, that we looked beyond 
and below us, expecting every moment to trace the 
rushing waters. At particular passes and bends of the 
hills we caught new objects of wonder. From one spot, 
we traced the lofty chain of the La Selle mountains, 
rising abruptly to a further height of twelve or fifteen 
hundred feet above our heads ; from another, the island 
of Gonave, far away in the ocean ; from a third, the 
plain of Jacmel, extending from the foot of the moun- 
tains to the sea ; and from a fourth, the hilly country 
about St. Mark and Gonaives, nearly a hundred miles 
distant by the common road, and which it would have 
taken us a three days' journey on horseback to reach ! 
The laughing woodpecker was running with agility up 
the tall trees in search of insects ; and a bird, called the 
musician, known only in these regions and rarely seen, 
gave out its fine soft notes, like a flute, from the depths 
of the woods. 

We rode slowly along, enjoying the sights and sounds 

of nature, so new and surprising to us, till we came to 

Fourcy, the hospitable habitation of our friend the 

senator. For the last three miles of this interesting 

route, we had come down a gradual descent. The 

villa of the plantation stands on a neck of table land, 

about 5400 feet above the sea, and is one of the finest 

spots imaginable : here we dismounted and formed a 

[ social domestic party for the day. Fourcy is a coffee 

plantation, worked on shares ; and it was delightful to 

see the hearty good will manifested by the labourers' to 

i their beloved proprietor, who comes but seldom to visit 

them, owing to the toil of the ascent, and the numerous 

state avocations that detain him in the city. A number 

of them clustered round us to take charge of the horses, 



142 LE GRAND FOND. 

and to perform the work of the house during our stay ; 
a superb second breakfast was prepared for us at noon ; 
after which, we traversed the numerous by-paths that 
lead down the sides of the mountains to the dells and 
ravines below, and luxuriated, if we may so speak, in 
the wonders of creation. The exclamation of Words- 
worth's Wanderer, in his address to the author of 
Nature, rushed to my recollection. 

ei The mind that may forget thee in the crowd. 
Cannot forget thee here, where thou hast built 
For thy own glory in the wilderness !" 

The mountains of La Selle, which overlook Jacmel 
and the sea, were at a distance of six leagues from us, 
and between them and the spot where we stood were 
profound depths, (des Grands Fonds,) some of them 
awfully rugged and rocky, and others filled with forests 
of the Weymouth pine; valleys ran between different 
ridges of the hills, in which were sprinkled numerous 
small properties, neatly fenced, where the owners reside, 
and cultivate provisions and coffee. The plantain, the 
banana, and the graceful Indian corn, are the products 
of the region. The beautiful Fuchsia, cultivated as a 
green-house plant in some parts of England, is here a 
parasite, which clings to the stems of slender trees, and 
hangs down its crimson blossoms in rich profusion; 
others of our elegant and tender garden plants grow 
wild by the road- side. The bay-tree and the ivy, so 
common in cold countries, mix with the forest trees 
peculiar to a tropical latitude: the standard peach 
flourishes and yields good fruit ; the apple thrives, 
and blackberries of a large size abound : here, in short, 
the products of the old and the new world blend 
together in strange luxuriance, and exhibit a vegetation 



LE GRAND FOND. 143 

remarkable in ajDpearance and extraordinary for its 
richness and beauty. The thermometer ranged in the 
day time from 60° to 64° of Fahrenheit ; and the evening 
and early morning were so chilly as to render a cloak or 
some other warm clothing necessary. The dinner table 
was abundantly supplied with soup, fish, fowl, ragouts, 
and roasted meat; numerous fine vegetables, tarts, creams, 
and confectionary, and a rich dessert ; coffee concluded 
the day. Our hospitable host showed the kindest atten- 
tion to his guests; such attentions as genuine courtesy 
dictates, and true politeness knows how to apply ; and 
entertained and instructed us by conversation of no 
common order. The senator Ardouin is a travelled 
gentleman, who went a few years since on a mission 
to the court of France, and paid a hasty visit to England 
on his return home. 

The next morning our party, some on foot, and others 
on horseback, went down a steep hill to visit the fields 
. of one of the new small proprietors settled in this dis- 
trict. The estate in question was purchased nine years 
ago, and consists of twenty- seven acres of good land, 
part of it in well- pruned young coffee trees, which 
the owner cultivates^ with the assistance of his son-in- 
law, wife, and daughters. The dwellings for the two 
separate families are neat and comfortable, and very 
well furnished ; their coffee is clean and vigorous, their 
gardens are flourishing, their fences neat — every thing 
indicating order, industry, and content. All the inmates, 
parents and children, were uneducated, and evidently 
superstitious ; with this exception, their condition seemed 
an enviable one. Could we have relied on the con- 
dition of these families as being a fair specimen of the 
rural peasantry of Hayti, we should have said that edu- 



144 LE GRAND FOND. 

cation and the spread of gospel truth only, were needed to 
make this land one of the finest on the face of the globe: 
not only lovely in its natural features, but in the con- 
tentment and genuine happiness of its people. Some 
of the old mountain estates are fast declining ; in part 
because the coffee trees begin to wear out, and to leave the 
land in what is called ruinate; and partly because the 
former labourers desert them, and buy new land for 
themselves. 

On Fourcy, there were, not long since, thirty-two 
cultivators; there are now but twelve : the remainder 
have abandoned it, and have become freeholders in their 
own right. Under Toussaint, no person was allowed to 
buy less than fifty carreaux, or 1 50 acres of land ; under 
the present government, the quantity purchaseable of 
the State is reduced to five carreaux, or fifteen acres, and 
this may be obtained at so moderate a price, as to be 
within the reach of every healthy industrious man. 
Owing to the cheapness of good land, the labourers, 
who work for hire, already reduced in number by the 
civil wars, are now still further diminished ; and a pro- 
prietor, if he wish to secure the services, of those who 
have long laboured for him on the moiety system, must 
be content to allow them even greater advantages than 
that system affords. The few remaining labourers on 
Fourcy not only take their half of the 10,000 lbs of 
coffee which the plantation yields, but appropriate to 
themselves almost the whole of the provisions which the 
land furnishes, sending down only a few of the rarer 
vegetables, beans, peas, and artichokes, to their master, 
for his table at Port-au-Prince, and supplying his 
need when he comes to reside for a few days in the 
country. This he knows very well, but has no alterna- 
tive, but to bear it quietly. 



JOURNEY TO LEOGANE. 145 

After a second mid-day repast, our little company 
began its downward march to the plain of Port-au- 
Prince. On returning we rested at Petionville, and 
received entertainment at the house of a public functionary 
who accommodates strangers, but who refused to receive 
anything from us as a return for his civilities. We 
reached the city as the sun was setting in its usual 
splendour behind the hills. Whoever wishes to gratify 
himself with some of the finest scenery in Hayti, should 
ascend the mountain we had just traversed, and explore 
the region of Le Grand Fond, and the stupendous 
heights of La Selle. The roads on this route are every 
where good; the passes in some places are steep and 
rocky, but affording, as they do, a firm foot-hold to the 
horses, are no where dangerous. 

Our next journey was a much longer one, and some- 
thing painful in its character, from the fatigues to which 
it subjected us. It was our wish to visit Jacmel, and 
the southern coast, by the way of Leogane, the princi- 
pal town of the arrondissement commanded by General 
Inginac, whose passport was needful to us. On making 
the General a call to solicit his leave to travel, he 
replied in the kindest manner — " You may travel any- 
where; the President was well satisfied with the interview 
you had with him, and it is our wish to make your stay 
in the country as agreeable as possible. When is it your 
wish to set out ?" On mentioning the day, he continued, 
"The journey is too long for Madame on horseback; if 
she exerts herself in this manner, she will take fever ; you 
must go across the level country in a carriage, and take 
to your horses when you reach the mountain road. Fix 
the hour of departure, and I will send you a carriage, 
horses, and postilion, and one of the clerks from my 

h 



146 JOURNEY TO LEOGANE, 

office sliall accompany you as far as my sugar estate 
at the bottom of the mountain, where you shall sup and 
lodge." Early in the morning, long before sunrise, the 
General's private carriage, with two horses and a hand- 
some mule, all abreast, and a servant in military uniform 
came up to the gate of our lodging house. We presently 
seated ourselves and drove off, at the rate of seven or 
eight miles an hour, over a tolerably good road, running 
part of the way through a mangrove swamp by the sea- 
side. At the distance of sixteen miles, we halted at a 
sugar estate belonging to the General's family, and 
waited for a change of horses, which his clerk had 
rode forward to procure : he had to search them on a 
neighbouring property, which detained us nearly an 
hour, but this circumstance gave us the opportunity of 
observing the nature of the surrounding country which 
in this part of the island is an extensive pasture of fine 
short grass, on which herds of cattle are kept to graze, 
and which is intersected by newly enclosed fields, where 
sugar is cultivated. The mango and other trees were 
growing at random, singly or in groups, about the dif- 
ferent properties ; and only a few houses could be seen. 
Another hour's travel, of six or eight miles, brought us 
to Leogane. Our attendant, the man of office, girded 
after the manner of the country with a long sword, took 
us to the house of a maiden lady, sister of the General, 
who had received from him a previous intimation of our 
coming. Here we found a breakfast prepared for us 
of cutlets, stewed fowl, plantains, red pottage, and 
coffee, and we were waited upon by the Colonel-com- 
mandant and Captain of the station, who expressed a 
wish to gratify us in everything we desired to see. 
Leogane is a small town containing about three thou- 



PLANTATION DUFORT. 147 

sand inhabitants, standing on a park-like plain, within 
a mile of the sea-shore; the roads in the neighbourhood 
are good, and in some places well shaded by trees ; but 
/ the streets are exceedingly dull, showing nothing of the 
bustle of commerce. The military alone enliven the place. 
and give it a temporary consequence. Again setting out, 
we passed over a district of land covered with green turf, 
as short and beautiful as the well-kept lawn of an 
English mansion, and, in about an hour, we reached the 
spot where we were invited to pitch our tent for the night. 
TTe took advantage of the little remaining daylight 
to survey the rural establishment. The name of this 
property is Dufort : it has about thirty- six acres of land 
in sugar cane, and manufactures 240 barrels of tafia per 
annum, of the value altogether of about £1300. sterling: 
and the pastures are fed off by sheep and cattle. The 
estate, like most others in this part of the country, is 
worked on the share system. The proprietor pays him- 
self five per cent, for the use of machinery, together 
with all the expenses of management and restores the 
oxen and horses that have died during the year or which 
have grown too old to work. What remains in value 
of the produce after satisfying these demands is divided 
equally between the proprietor and the labourers, leaving 
the latter in most instances, but a small sum for each ; 
but then they pay no rent, are allowed pasture for their 
horses, keep pig^, goats,, and poultry, gather fruit from 
the trees, and raise their own provisions on grounds set 
apart for their use. At the time of our visit the sugar 
mill was at work ; and the place was full of bustle and 
gaiety. 

In Jamaica the sugar mills are generally worked 
by wind, water, or steam; in this country, they are 

h2 * 



148 SPOTTED AND RINGSTRAKED SHEEP. 

worked by horses, the horses being attached to the cir- 
cumference of a large wheel ; driven round with a long- 
whip, by a man who sits on one of the naves that 
project from a huge shaft in the centre : the poor animals 
are made to go very quick, and seem to be used with 
very little mercy. Men, women, and children, were all 
employed in some one or other of the operations attendant 
on the manufacture of tafia, which is here found to be a 
more profitable direction of capital than the crystalliza- 
tion of the syrup into sugar. The labourers' provision 
grounds, and the gardens attached to the homestall, were 
in good order, and yielded an abundant supply of the 
common necessaries of life. As we were walking over 
the farm we came to a hilly spot, on which were 
browzing what looked like a flock of goats, but on a 
nearer approach, we discovered them to be sheep ; and 
such sheep as we had never seen before : hair instead of 
wool covered their backs, and they were all either spotted 
or ringstraked ! They were probably, in kind and appear- 
ance, the very counterpart of that portion of Laban's 
flock, which formed the wages and patrimony of the 
patriarch Jacob ; and if sheep and goats, in ancient time, 
had as near a resemblance to each other, as this kind 
of sheep bears to the goats of our own country, we may 
see at once the peculiar force of our Lord's words in 
reference to the end of the world, as intimating some 
skill and discernment on the part of the shepherd, whose 
province it is to divide the flocks : — " Before Him shall 
be gathered all nations : and He shall separate them one 
from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the 
goats." The flock of sheep on this estate was perfectly 
unique in its character : we met with none such any- 
where else; the ground of the skin and hair was white, 



JOURNEY TO JACMEL. 149 

the spots and rings were dark-brown : they were spotted 
like leopards, or striped, like the zebra. 

Very early the next morning our whole establishment 
was in motion : our saddle horses from Port-au-Prince 
had arrived in the evening, together with an ass for the 
baggage, and two guides to conduct us over the moun- 
tains. The horses were brought out to be saddled for 
the journey ; the postilion was busy in fixing his team 
to the empty carriage ; servants were engaged in pre- 
paring us coffee, or in assisting to load the poor ass with 
his panniers ; and there was much clatter, and some 
little confusion, before we got fairly under weigh. The 
clerk from the General's office still kept us company ; 
having received instructions not to leave us till we 
should reach the summit of the mountain, 5000 feet 
above the plain ; and till we should have the port of 
Jacmel full in view. Yery slow and toilsome was our 
upward march by star-light; now through the shade 
of thick trees that covered the road with their branches, 
and now along a river course that swept among the hills, 
and which it was impossible to avoid crossing many 
times during the journey. The air was delightfully 
cool till a little after sun-rise, when the heat, notwith- 
standing the very high ground we were traversing, began 
to be oppressive : after six hours of hard toil we reached 
the summit. It would be difficult to a person not 
acquainted with mountain scenery in the tropics to form 
a conception of the grandeur and loveliness of nature, as 
exhibited in these wonderful hills. Jamaica and Mar- 
tinique have scenes surpassing fable, but Hayti has 
prospects more beautiful, and is richer still. At many 
points everything but high hills and deep valleys is 
shut out from view : the hills in many places, to a con- 



150 JOURNEY TO JACMEL. 

siderabie extent, being covered with timber trees, the 
growth perhaps of centuries, interspersed with the 
graceful cabbage palm, — the tree of liberty, which is 
cultivated and fostered as the emblem of national 
freedom : the valleys and low rising ground being 
sprinkled with neat well fenced cottages, green with 
Indian corn and the broad leafed banana, or covered 
with numerous patches of the white flowering coffee ! 
The people of Hayti, if they display no other refine- 
ment, shew admirable taste in the choice of place and 
situation to live in : some of the sweetest spots in 
creation are covered with their dwellings, where to all 
appearance at least, they live a peaceful, contented, 
and happy life. "Were such a land as this colonized 
by Europeans, we should hear no end of its praise. 
Our kind host the General's bailiff, in the valley 
below, had furnished us with ample provision in the 
shape of mutton ; and a cottager at the spot where we 
rested, boiled us some coffee and cooked some eggs, 
on which we made a noon-day repast : while the horses 
which the guides had tethered, feasted on bundles of 
juicy guinea grass. Superstition, standing in the place 
of religion, spreads its influence over hill and dale : the 
mountain top and the lowest valley equally feel its 
prevailing power. In this remote spot, which the parish 
priest, in his rounds but seldom visits, we discovered a 
household altar dedicated to the Virgin, and strewed 
with crosses, where the poor devotees of the little settle- 
ment repair to pay their devotions. A page or two of 
a missal or some Romish legend, which probably none 
could read, were placed in due order on a table before 
the crucifix ! heathenism and popery are unhappily 
blended in this benighted land, and keep the people in 



JOURNEY TO JAC3IEL. 151 

chains of ignorance and fear. How animating is the 
consideration that a better state of things is destined, 
sooner or later, to gladden the earth ! The evan- 
gelical prophet says in speaking of the reign of the 
Messiah, that u he shall not fail nor be discouraged till 
he have set judgment in the earth, and the isles shall 
wait for his law." Hayti is undoubtedly one of the 
islands comprehended in this cheering declaration ; and 
it is surely the duty of professing Christians, who 
behold her miserable state to stretch out a hand to 
help her. 

After we had well rested, we began to descend towards 
the plains on the southern coast. Our attendant here 
took leave of us : one of our guides lagged behind with 
the ass and panniers; and, with the other guide on 
foot, we now pursued our journey alone. The views 
were most extensive and transcendently fine : on one 
side, we could trace the ocean shore northward, almost 
to Cape Nicholas Mole, a hundred and fifty miles 
distant : on another, there rose the towering heights 
of La Selle, extending in an interminable range towards 
the east ; and below us, twenty miles off, apparently 
embosomed in woods, lay the town of Jacmel, which 
though so distant from the spot where we stood, appeared 
so near that a schoolboy would have said he could sling 
a stone into it. The steeps and declivities of our down- 
ward path were fearful ; but the horses kept their feet 
firmly, and we received no harm. 

In one part of the road, we passed through a grove of 
Seville orange trees loaded with ripe fruit, but unpalatable 
to us, though we needed refreshment. On coming near 
to the bottom of the mountains, the scenery assumed 
something of an English aspect; and but for tropical trees, 



152 ARRIVAL AT JACMEL. 

so unlike any thing European, we might have imagined 
ourselves in Derbyshire. The broad smooth river, and 
the bold rocks, which from their vast and irregular layers, 
seem to have been heaved up by some violent concussion, 
were singularly picturesque and beautiful. Had not 
excessive fatigue weighed down our spirits and depressed 
our energies, we should hardly have known how to 
admire the scenery enough ; but the horses were jaded, 
and would scarcely do more than move, even with the 
whip. We had many miles yet to travel ; and both of 
us had become faint for want of refreshment, which how- 
ever we obtained in an unexpected manner. My wife 
discovered a guava tree loaded with ripe fruit, and 
stopped her horse to gather some. The fruit was fine 
and juicy, and both cheered and invigorated us : the 
effects it produced reminded us of the honey which 
Jonathan discovered in the wood ; ie he put forth the 
end of the rod that was in his hand, and dipped it in an 
honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth : and his 
eyes were enlightened.'* Our horses stopped to drink of 
the river, and to snatch some juicy leaves; and we 
then passed slowly along, often outstripped by our 
guide on foot, till we reached our wished for destination, 
in a comfortable boarding-house at Jacmel. The day's 
journey had been thirty miles; in performing which, we 
had been eleven hours on horseback, except as we occa- 
sionally dismounted to avoid the danger of steep decli- 
vities, and to relieve the horses. 

Our first visitor at Jacmel was a mulatto gentle- 
woman, the widow of a black man, who had filled the 
office of Collector of the Customs ; and who occupied 
one of the best houses in the place. She had lived in 
the United States, and spoke our language fluently; and 



JACMEL. 153 

came to pay us respect as strangers. This kind- 
hearted matron paid us several visits, furnished us with 
sweet cakes and fruit, entertained us at her table, and 
introduced us to some of the best families of the place. 
Her conduct was the more remarkable, as, in America, 
she had suffered grievous persecution from the cruel 
prejudice existing in that country against colour. Her 
first husband was a sea-captain : on one occasion, she 
left the shore with him in the boat, to take a final leave 
of him on board the vessel, and was carried by the 
winds to a greater distance from home than she expected. 
The boat re-conveyed her to the shore and landed her at 
a strange place. Seeing a tavern, she made her way to 
it to obtain lodging; for the night : the landlady looked 
at her repulsively, and spurned her from the door. 
ei We take in no niggers here," was her coarse language ; 
" if you want to rest, go to the nigger huts on the top of 
the hill!" The poor lady told us her heart was too full 
to bear this unchristian rebuke with meekness : she sat 
down and burst into tears. She did, however, toil up 
to the negro's huts, and was there received kindly. 

The Americans, in their own estimation and boast, 
are the freest people on the face of the globe : according 
to the terms of their constitution, " all men are free and 
equal ;" yet they treat the houseless stranger, if tinged 
with a coloured skin, as one of nature's outcasts ! 
Whenever a white man from America or Europe falls 
sick in Jacmel, no one is so ready to offer to nurse him 
and shew him kindness, as this poor despised woman, 
whose mother was an African. What a contrast ; and 
what a striking lesson does such a fact as this teach to 
the proud republicans of " Columbia's happy land !" 
The son and son-in-law of General Inginac, Secretary of 

h 3 



154 JAC3IEL. 

State for Hayti, on their return home a few years since 
from Paris, where they had been received in a manner 
suited to their rank and station in life, landed at New 
York, with a view of visiting the United States ; but 
no tavern or boarding-house keeper, would receive them 
as guests, for fear of giving offence to the inhabitants of 
that city! 

One of the richest merchants at -Port-au-Prince^ 
whose father was one of Christophers barons, assured 
me that he went into a woollen draper's store in Phila- 
delphia, and desiring to be measured for a black coat, 
the storekeeper retorted with an impudent falsehood. 
" We have no cloth here, sir:' , a hatter also, whose store 
was attended, when he called, by some white customers, 
refused to sell him a hat i Such is the tyranny of 
public opinion in this professedly free land, that a man 
dare not protest against conduct like this, and call it 
as it is, barbarous and unchristian, without the danger 
of being treated contemptuously. The Haytiens have 
a settled dislike against the Americans, owing to this 
deep rooted and wicked prejudice, which the latter 
carry so far as to refuse to admit any Haytien citizen 
to act in their ports as a Consul for his own nation. 
But the subject is too sickening to dwell upon. 

The town of Jacmel consists of two parts ; the lower 
town, built along the shore at the bottom of a bay 
where the shipping lies, and where business is carried 
on ; and the upper town, built on a hill immediately 
behind the lower. The view of this port from a ship's 
deck at sea with its white buildings and terrace-like 
form, must be very striking. The streets are poor and 
ill-paved ; and there are not many good houses : the 
best building in the place belongs to the President, 



JACMEL. 155 

who is seldom there, and which therefore stands empty. 
The inhabitants are estimated at from six to seven thou- 
sand. There is a good market place; a spacious, and 
rather handsome, parish church; and a strong prison. 
A ship from Havre, and a fine brig bound for Liverpool, 
were taking in cargoes of coffee and logwood ; and a 
considerable number of coasting sloops lay at anchor in 
the harbour. The beach extends nearly the whole 
length of the bay, and forms a delightful promenade. 
We often walked there to enjoy the sea-breezes, and to 
survey the amphitheatre of fine hills that enclose the 
town. 

A kind of nautilus called the Portuguese man-of-war 
which spreads a sail to the wind, and floats on the 
wave, is very abundant in this part of the ocean : whole 
fleets of this species of jelly fish are sometimes driven on 
the shore : early one morning we found a multitude of 
them alive on the beach, every one of them clinging 
with its tentacula to some stone or shell, as if to avoid - 
being swept back again to the angry surge. If touched 
with the naked hand, they inflict a sharp sting, like 
other animals of the mollusca tribe : so that in order to 
examine them minutely, you are compelled to take them 
up carefully between two pieces of wood. The body of 
the animal is firm and transparent, and reflects like a 
prism, the bright colours of the rainbow : its form when 
narrowly scrutinized, is more intelligible than appears at 
first view : its head and eyes are distinctly visible, and a 
broad margin of fringe beautifully gay with red and 
violet, which we supposed it might sometimes spread 
for a sail, is attached to its side. The arteries of the 
body, and the muscles that move this fringe may be 
clearly traced : its tentacula are numerous ; but instead 



156 JACMEL. 

of being white, as they appear to be when under water, 
they exhibit the same varied colours as the body, only 
somewhat of a darker and deeper hue. This animal 
does not, as some have supposed, inhabit the shell of 
the nautilus, but is of a totally distinct tribe — distinct 
both in appearance, and in its manner and habits of life. 
Shell fish of different species are sometimes swept on 
these shores ; but we saw none of any value or beauty 
during our stay. 

Among the families which we visited at Jaeuiel 
Was that of the procureur, or state attorney of the 
district, whom we had met at Port au Prince, and who 
politely invited us to a second breakfast ; four servants 
waited at table, but all of them sat down on a chair, 
when not engaged in attending to the wants of the com- 
pany. This family was a highly interesting group : well 
informed, and of polished manners ; and had more of a 
Christian bearing than is common in this country. The 
French Bible, without comment, was lying on the table, 
and one of the sons told me it was their constant practice, 
though Roman Catholics, to read a portion of it every 
morning, before they entered on the business and duties of 
the day. There was a good library in the house. The 
public school of Jacmel is conducted on the monitorial 
r system, under the care of an accomplished black man, 
\ who has about seventy scholars. There are also three 
j private schools, where about 120__boj:s_^rid_girjs^ are 
! educated. The prison disappointed me, being very 
narrow and confined, and grievously inadequate to its 
purpose : there is but one small day-yard for men and 
women, tried and untried, old and young, sane and 
insane ! The soldiers, who sit as sentries at the gates of 
these prisons, lolling and smoking their cigars, sometimes 



RETURN TO PORT AU PRINCE. 157 

assume the most amusing consequence : one of them, 
on our entering the court, insisted on searching my hat 
to see whether any knife or sharp instrument were con- 
cealed there for any of the prisoners, and justified his 
rudeness on the plea of duty. 

The prisoners here, as in other places, are allowed 
only a single gourdine, or five pence sterling per week, 
for food. A captain and three soldiers under arms, 
together with the jailer, attended us through the dif- 
ferent apartments. One great cause of crime in this 
district is, the free consumption of rum and tafia. The 
chief clerk of the customs informed me that from 1800 
to 2000 barrels were landed here every year, for use in 
the town and neighbourhood; this would give to 30,000 
inhabitants, the number residing in the arrondissement, 
an average of four gallons to each individual ; but as 
many of the small proprietors carry their cofTee to market 
at Cayes, and return loaded with spirits by land carriage, 
the quantity consumed is much greater. The calcula- 
tion founded on an estimate given me by our Yice-Consul 
at Port-au-Prince, makes the quantity five gallons and a 
half to each individual ! There is now no British Consul 
at Jacmel : the last gentleman who filled this office, 
James Hodges, an English merchant, left the island 
a few years since, and has left behind him the regrets 
and good wishes of all classes of the inhabitants. Our 
country had in him an upright able representative, whose 
loss will not easily be repaired. 

After spending a week in this district, we prepared 
to return to the capital, having engaged a servant on 
mule-back to convey our baggage, and act as our guide. 
"We were no sooner mounted and ready to start, than 
the guide attempted to mount his mule, which became 



158 DRESSING OF COFFEE. 

intolerably restive, and refused to stir a step forward : 
it kicked violently, and threw off the panniers ; so 
that our provisions prepared for the journey were scat- 
tered in the open street. From this untoward circum- 
stance, it was so late, before we cleaned the town, that 
instead of journeying as we had intended, in the cool 
early morning, the sun soon rose upon us and shed his 
fierce beams on our heads. We stopped to breakfast at 
a negro cabin by the roadside, but speedily resumed our 
route. Our pathway in this direction lay in the course 
of the river Jacmel, which rises high in the mountains, 
and pours down in the rainy season an immense body 
of water to the sea ; we crossed the bed of this river 
more than sixty times, till one of the horses became so 
jaded and weary with the fording, that we were obliged 
to dismount, and to lead the poor animal along in the 
best manner we could, up the steep hills and along the 
mountain precipices; and w T e should ourselves have been 
worn out with the toil and anxiety, had we not been 
rewarded with such magnificent scenery in every direc- 
tion, as more than compensated for all our pains and 
trouble. At two o'clock, p. m., having journeyed 
twenty-four miles, we reached a coffee habitation on 
the declivity of the Gros Morne, where the good people 
took us in, cut grass for the horses, and provided us with 
coffee, and a good bed. The master of the house was 
the overseer of the plantation, which he cultivated on 
the share system, he was surrounded by numerous fellow- 
labourers, whose decent cabins were scattered in the 
most picturesque manner among the neighbouring hills ; 
and who here went by the name of cultivators. 

We no where observed in Hayti, those terraced flat 
pavements so common in Jamaica, under the name of 



MOUNTAIN SCENERY. 159 

larlacueS) where planters spread out their coffee to 
prepare for pulping, and where the pulped berry is left 
to dry in the sun. All the operations for which a 
barbacue serves elsewhere are performed in Hayti on the 
naked ground, in the open air ; hence the coffee, which 
in this country has a peculiarly fine aromatic flavour, 
gets mixed with particles of grit and dirt, which adds 
to the weight and deteriorates the quality, and greatly 
lessens its value in the foreign market. In some 
municipalities, where coffee is brought to market, the 
bags are narrowly examined to ascertain what portion 
of dirt they contain; and the mayor of one town 
assured us, that his regulations were so strict on this 
head, that parties disposed to practice deceit met with 
summary punishment. This neglect of cleanliness in 
the dressing of coffee is one proof, among many others, 
of the natural indolence of the people : naked children 
are suffered to roam about at pleasure, who might 
be trained to the useful work of picking out the dirty 
particles, and by the increased value thus given to the 
commodity, might provide themselves with an abund- 
ance of good clothing. A semi-civilized people will 
always continue to tread in the beaten path of those 
who have gone before them, caring to turn neither to 
the right hand nor the left, whatever profit or advantage 
a change of path might bring ; indolence benumbs, and 
ignorance blinds them. Such is Hayti at the present 
moment, and such it will be till education raises it from 
its sunken level. 

Early the next morning, my wife on horseback, 
myself and the guide on foot, again set forward, and in 
about two hours reached the summit of Gros Morne. 
It is impossible by any description to convey a picture of 



160 SCENE IN A NEGRO HUT. 

tlie fine panorama which here burst on our view in all its 
extent, and with its splendour of tropical scenery — the 
wide ocean, the lofty hills, the extensive plain, the broad 
river course, and the far distant mountains. Our guide 
assured us, that from this very spot he had often on a 
clear day, seen as far as Cape Nicholas Mole, on the 
north-west of the island ; nearly a hundred and fifty 
miles distant ! The passage in this direction over Gros 
Morne, which is here about 5000 feet in height, is one of 
great interest, not only from the vast outlines of nature, 
but from the extraordinary fruitfulness and loveliness of 
the foreground; and from the numerous houses and small 
villages that adorn it. On descending the mountain 
towards the plain of Leogane, we passed by a hedge of 
wdiite jessamine in full flow T er; and saw pine apples 
growing under the trees. On reaching the level ground, 
w r e stopped at a solitary house, belonging to a sugar 
property, to breakfast and take rest. The hut,- for such 
we must call it, was one of the common negro houses 
in which slaves formerly resided : it consisted of two 
apartments, one fitted up as a sleeping-room, the other 
serving as a day-room for all purposes, giving ingress 
and egress to human beings, fowls, goats, sheep, and 
pigs ! It contained a table, a stool, and two or three 
chairs, and a fire was lighted at the far end, where the 
mistress of the family was cooking her pottage. Several 
men were sauntering about as if they had nothing to do, 
and could live without work ; a naked boy kept watch 
and ward at the door- way to keep the pigs from molest- 
ing us, and we patiently sat down to take such a 
survey of common life as the curious scene afforded us. 
Presently, a pet lamb made its appearance ; when the 
boy left his post, and hugging it with delight, took it to 



SCENE IN A NEGRO HUT. 161 

his grandmother, who sat at the porridge pot, and who 
fed it with the peelings of some sweet potatoes which 
she was preparing for a savory mess. Extreme rudeness 
and ignorance characterized all around us ; and when 
we had seen enough we departed. Here we hired a 
mule, to relieve our jaded sick horse, which the guide 
attached hy a cord to his own mule, and suffered to 
| trot or walk as it pleased. There are numerous sugar 
estates in this part of the plain, through several of 
which we passed ; they contained a numerous popula- 
tion, but many of the men and women were meanly 
clad, and some of the great boys and girls were in a 
state of perfect nudity* 

Grecie is a village by the side of the road, leading 
from Leogane to the capital, about fifteen miles distant 
from the latter, and here finding a good tavern and 
excellent accommodations, we stopped to dine and 
lodge. In the course of the evening we walked out to 
visit some of the habitations close by, and were much 
interested in a provision ground, cultivated as a market 
garden, in the less common kind of vegetables, such as 
green peas, butter-beans, tomatoes, and the sweet 
potato : the proprietor had led down a water course 
from the hills in such a manner, as to give it irrigation 
in every part, and a fine crop was the result and reward 
of his diligence. In the morning our journey recom- 
menced, and at ten o'clock, we arrived safely, once more, 
at Port-au-Prince. 



162 THE FINE ARTS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE FINE ARTS — PHYSIOGNOMY OF THE NATIVES- 
INEFFICIENCY OF THE CITY POLICE DEPARTURE 

FROM HAYTI— CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 

The descendants of Africa may be said to excel in the 
imitative arts ; the boys at school write in general a 
superior hand, and succeed well in those branches of 
business which are purely mechanical, and require no 
exercise of the higher powers of the mind ; but neither 
in Hayti, nor in any other nation of the African race, is 
civilization so far advanced as to lead us to look for the 
efforts of genius in the cultivation of the fine arts. 
There are in this conntry a few artists by profession, 
who obtain a living by portrait painting ; and there is 
one at Cape Haytien who excels in the higher branches 
of the profession, and has produced pictures which are 
likely to give him a name. The portraits we saw in 
different houses were, in general, a tame coloured map of 
the human face, very like the original in the contour and 
common features, but without a particle of life or spirit; 
just such resemblances as pass in this country under the 
name of wooden. Pictures of this sort are very nume- 
rous, and stare you in the face in houses of an inferior 
description, where you would little expect to see them. 
Vanity is common to the human mind; and it cannot be 
expected that unlettered negroes should be free from it. 
The next sort of pictures in common demand are holy 
families, copied from the old masters, saints at prayer, 
and allegorical representations of angels in heaven ; of 



THE FINE ARTS. I 63 

these we saw some good specimens from the hands 
of Dejoie, a native artist, which give an idea to the 
observer of what, under good instruction, and by 
studying the old masters, he might become capable of 
performing. His great work, which is placed in the 
senate house at Port-au-Prince, is the historical picture 
of the entry of President Boyer and his generals into 
the city of Cape Haytien, soon after the death of 
Christophe; the grouping is spirited, the portraits are 
good, and the execution altogether is highly creditable 
to his taste and skill. We visited the store-shop of an 
artist, to look over his collection of views of the city 
and port, which we found very hard and meagre ; 
some copied portraits interested us greatly— Petion, 
Christophe, Dessalines, and others. That of Dessalines, 
in his scarlet uniform, we should suppose, from his 
known character, to be true to the original, fierce, 
ignorant, and cruel — the picture of a chief, who, as 
the Haytiens say of him, " never spared a man in his 
anger," and who was remorseless in all his doings. 
Christophe has a milder countenance, with the bearing 
of a gentleman ; and the portrait of Petion is every 
way pleasing in its expression. 

Alexander Petion, the first President of the republic 
of Hayti, was perhaps less beloved in his life-time, than 
his memory has been venerated since his death. High 
mass every year is said for his departed soul with great 
pomp and circumstance, according to the rites of the 
Romish church ; and the people appear to look back 
upon him with more than a common feeling of kindness 
and regard, as the father and friend of his country. 
There is an engraved bust of him with an inscription, 
which may be considered an echo of the public senti- 



164 ALEXANDER PETION. 

rnent. " II n'a jamais fait couler larmes a personne, sauf 
a sa mort. ? '* The body of this chief encased in a coffin, 
lies in an open cenotaph fronting the government house, 
and by the side of it, that of his only daughter : both 
coffins are occasionally decorated with simple votive 
offerings : a picture of the Virgin and a cross are placed 
on a pedestal behind the coffins, to arrest and elevate the 
devotions of the faithful. There is no doubt that Petion 
was a patriot, and that he sincerely desired the welfare 
of Hayti : he was greatly averse to the shedding of 
blood, and had often to check the impetuosity and 
vengeance of the generals who commanded under him. 
Some accounts represent him to have starved himself 
to death through vexation at the slow progress of his 
people towards civilisation ; this might have been the 
case, as he was of a sanguine temperament, and was 
exceedingly thwarted in some of his plans for the public 
good : but a physician of Port-au-Prince assured me 
that such was not really the fact, and that he died of 
inanition from natural causes. President Boyer, makes 
it his boast that he treads in the steps of his illustrious 
predecessor : he has lately signified his wish to the 
house of representatives, that a statue in marble may be 
erected to his memory. I do not remember to have 
seen a single statue, public or private in Hayti ; and 
there is probably no artist in the island capable of pro- 
ducing one : nor is there a single edifice that indicates 
genius in the mind of the architect ; all is coarse or 
common. There is nothing to be lamented in this ; 
conveniences, not luxuries, are the wants of a republic, 
and so long as these are attended to in the spirit of an 

* He never caused the tears of any one to flow but when he died. 



HEATHEN RITES OF BURIAL. 165 

improving age, it is all that the friends of good order 
can for a long time wish for, or need be at all anxious 
to promote. 

A large number of the mulatto class of citizens 
residing at the capital, came over as emigrants from the 
United States, and are distinct in their physiognomy 
from the Creoles ; their countenance in general is rather 
coarse and forbidding, whereas the native mulattos, 
especially the women, have a softness and subdued 
expression that is very pleasing. Perhaps it is that . 
the features become more agreeable in proportion as 
a people recede from the effects and influence of slavery. 
It is rather a remarkable fact, that out of the sixty or 
seventy Romish priests now officiating in the island, one 
only is a coloured man ; although many of the brown 
people are well taught in the public schools, and some of 
them are more than on a par, in point of scholarship and 
manners, with the rude priests imported from Corsica. 
The priests from Europe have succeeded in keeping the 
common people in bonds of the grossest superstition, 
and have made them believe, to adopt a phrase in com- 
mon use, well understood by the vulgar, that coloured 
baptism will not stick ! All the dollars received from 
baptisms are wanted for the pockets of white men, 
exclusively. There are some superstitions, which as not 
affecting materially the income of the priests, are left 
untouched and unreproved ; the burial of poor people 
without the rites of the church is one of them : the 
choir and the crucifix are unsought for because there is 
no money to pay for them ; but to bury without rites 
of any kind, is repugnant to their feelings; hence, 
heathen ceremonies are commonly resorted to ; libations 
are poured out, and a table is spread for the dead, of 



166 INEFFICIENCY OF THE POLICE. 

common eatables, very much after the manner of the 
Chaldeans, as represented in the apocryphal story of 
Bel and the Dragon. It sometimes happens that people, 
who possess money enough to pay the priest for a hand- 
some interment, prefer the practice of heathen ceremonies, 
from the habits and associations to which they have been 
long accustomed. How much are public schools and 
christian instruction needed in this dark land ! 

We heard much, during our stay at Port-au-Prince 
of the extreme inefficiency of the police : crimes of a 
deep dye are not often perpetrated, but when they do 
occur, they seem to excite but little attention ; and the 
criminal, if a determined active man, will sometimes 
elude pursuit. During our stay at Port-au-Prince, a 
murder was committed within a few doors of our own 
lodgings ; a wicked fellow who had masked his face for 
the carnival, went into the house of an American emi- 
grant, and attempted to take hold of his daughter ; the 
father strove to prevent him ; a scuffle ensued, the girl 
ran between them to part the combatants, when the 
murderer drew out a dagger, and stabbed her to the 
heart. The military guard was immediately informed 
of the fact ; the murderer was known, but escaped. It 
was only an American girl that lost her life, and so the 
matter ended ! With a large standing army of soldiers 
who do nothing, how disgraceful are facts like these ! 
An efficient civil police is greatly needed in the large 
towns. 

Towards the close of our sojourn at the capital, 
and before we left the country, we accepted an invi- 
tation from the missionary Hartwell, to spend a few 
days in his family ; he and his wife, had but lately 
arrived from England, and we took the opportunity 



DEPARTURE FROM PORT-AU-PRINCE. 1 67 

of exploring the city, and making our inquiries and 
observations together. We shall long remember their 
kindness and affection towards us, and the very plea- 
sant hours we spent, both in their society, and in that 
of the small Christian band, in whose religious welfare 
they feel so deep an interest. The brig, Henry Delajield, 
bound to New York, w T as lying in the harbour, when we 
returned from Jacmel : by this vessel we engaged a pas- 
sage, and agreed to set sail for that port. Our residence 
in Hayti was rather more than three months. 

The reader will perceive that nothing has been said 
of the eastern or Spanish part of the island ; our travels 
were confined to the western or French part ; and it 
was my wish to speak only from actual observation 
of what we saw and heard on the spot. It now 
remains for us only, in conclusion, to take a view of 
the general state of the country, of the causes of its 
present degradation, and of the means by which it 
may be happily raised to its proper rank in the scale 
of nations. 

The causes of the degradation of Hayti being nume- 
rous, many agencies must be called into operation, in 
order to effect the desired change in her condition. The 
dense ignorance of her population, — their intemperate 
use of ardent spirits, — the large size, and the maladmi- 
nistration of the standing army, and the corruptions of 
the Church, are the great antagonist forces against which 
an advancing civilization must long have to contend. 
How are these forces to be resisted? How are these 
elements of evil to be overcome ? The grand remedy 
for the ignorance that prevails, is obvious : it is to 
establish schools in the country towns and villages, and 
to encourage elementary education. The government of 



168 CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 

the country, which professes to feel a deep interest in 
the spread of knowledge, devotes at present only the 
very small and in significant sum of £1000 sterling per 
annum, towards the support of public schools ; and 
these schools are for boys only, and exist but in six or 
seven of the larger towns. The republic, it must be 
confessed, is crippled for want of funds, and cannot 
extend farther aid in this department without great 
economy, and extensive retrenchments. But are the 
rulers of Hayti prepared to pursue such a course, as the 
present state of society demands ? To a certain extent, 
we trust, they are ; as since the preceding pages were 
written, information has reached this country, that the 
good work of amelioration has been already begun, and 
that a reduction in the numerical force of the army, to the 
extent of one-third, has been decreed by the legislature. 
This measure, the beginning of a great change in the 
policy of the country, inspires us with much hope for 
the future ; although in an economical point of view, 
nothing is yet gained by it for the cause of education ; 
since the money saved by disbanding one-third of the 
army is to be applied to the increasing of the pay of 
the two-thirds that remain. Reform, however, has 
fairly begun its course ; the wedge has entered at the 
right place, and a few continued strokes, judiciously 
given, may drive it farther and farther, till the army is 
nearly, if not entirely broken up. The same power 
which has reduced it from twenty-four thousand men 
to sixteen thousand, may soon, if it please, put an end 
to it altogether. It is to this disbanding of the army, 
as the chief source of saving, in conjunction with 
measures for regulating the custom-house duties, and for 
restoring the currency to a sound and healthy state, that 



CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 169 

Hayti must look for pecuniary means to carry forward 
the work of education. This point obtained, all other 
difficulties may be speedily overcome. The island is at 
present divided and sub-divided into military districts, 
and the same mode of division, probably with very 
little change, might be adopted as the basis of an exten- 
sive school organization. When colleges succeed to 
camps, and country school- rooms to the village guard- 
house, an immense benefit will accrue to the population 
at large. The Romish priests of the island are opposed to 
the enlightenment of the common people, as might 
naturally be expected, and their influence, to a certain 
extent, will be exerted against it ; but the power of this 
class of functionaries, to obstruct the spread of know- 
ledge, is happily less here than in most other parts of 
the world. " Put me, I pray thee, into one of the 
priest's offices, that I may eat a piece of bread," is, in 
substance, the petition to the President of Hayti, of 
almost every ecclesiastic who sets his foot on the soil : 
the President, and not the Pope, is the head of the 
Church, and it is too much to suppose, that the hatred 
of the priests to the spread of knowledge, should lead 
them to oppose their own temporal interests,— the very 
interests which, above all others, it is the chief study 
of their lives to promote and secure. Should any one of 
them prove refractory on the point of education, and 
attempt to thwart the measures of the Government, the 
President has power to translate him from a richer 
living to a poorer one ; or if it should please him to do 
so, he may banish him from the country altogether. 
The system of instruction to be looked to, as most in 
harmony with the existing arrangements of the country, 



170 CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 

is that of the British and Foreign School Society, which 
extends tuition to both sexes, — which excludes creeds 
and catechisms, and which encourages the use of the 
Bible, as a class-book. This system is already in opera- 
tion at Cape Haytien, and may easily be made to accom- 
modate itself to the feelings and wants of the people in 
all other places. The Lyceum at Port au Prince, already 
a Normal school, and a very effective one, is well fitted 
for the training of young men, to carry out the moni- 
torial plan of teaching ; and would, in a few years, 
furnish a sufficient number of masters for the whole 
island, more especially if good salaries were offered 
them, and if the appointment of school-master were 
made an honorable one, by the express patronage of the 
President. As there' is now no jealousy in Hayti of 
foreign philanthropic interference, and as the character 
of England stands high with its people, the friends of 
education in this country have it in their power, at 
the present moment, to render the republic an essential 
service by opening a correspondence with its chief, and 
by offering to furnish, or to assist in furnishing, ele- 
mentary books, maps, charts, globes, and other school 
materials. A liberal encouragement of this sort, in the 
beginning of such a laudable enterprise, would probably 
effect much good. Any approach, on our part, to a 
friendly understanding with the rulers of Hayti, on the 
subject of education, would be received in the kindest 
manner ; our motives would be correctly appreciated, 
and the suggestions made by us, w T ould, in all proba- 
bility, obtain their deliberate and serious consideration. 
A system of national education, wisely conceived, and 
rightly applied, is the grand moral desideratum for the 



CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 171 

country. We have stated, in the course of the foregoing 
narrative, that the people in general are of slothful 
habits. Idleness is a vice inherent in all uneducated 
countries, where the soil is fertile, and where the 
common comforts of animal life may be procured with 
but little of bodily labour. Education, by quickening 
and elevating the power of the mind, opens it to the 
discovery of new wants; a people beginning to be 
educated, are anxious to inform themselves of the state 
and condition of other nations, with whom they hold 
intercourse, and are gradually led to desire the refinements 
and advantages of civilized life. There speedily follows, 
as a natural consequence, a strong desire to improve the 
construction of their dwelling-houses, — to procure better 
furniture and better clothing, — to mend the roads and 
highways, — to use horses instead of asses and mules 
for purposes of draught and burden, — to improve the 
construction of their rude and inconvenient carriages, 
and to carry forward many other ameliorating measures. 
An increase of labour will be immediately bestowed on 
the soil, that the cultivators may be enabled to bring 
greater quantities of produce to market, as by this 
means only, can they hope to supply themselves with 
the conveniences and luxuries which a new state of 
society leads them to covet. Industry will thus succeed 
to idleness, and both the natural face of the country, 
and the manners and morals of the people, will undergo 
a great change for the better. 

Coincident with an extended school education, as 
a means of regenerating Hayti, is the spread of the 
Holy Scriptures in the French and Spanish languages, 
and the diffusion of useful, moral, and religious treatises, 

i2 



172 CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 

adapted to the minds of the young. The free toleration 
of all religious sects, which exists in the island, is 
highly favourable to efforts of this description; and 
such efforts, if conducted by exemplary individuals, who 
may settle in the country, or who may go to sojourn 
there for a time as visitors, would meet with ready 
support from many of the more enlightened inhabitants. 
An honest zeal in this department of labour, combined 
with the Christian example and Christian precept, of 
those who take part in it, would prove a great blessing. It 
would not be easy to estimate the advantages likely to 
result from the discriminating zeal of even a small body 
of Christian settlers, in a land like this. It was said 
by a religious reformer, two centuries ago, that a right- 
minded Christian, acting on all occasions as the Gospel 
prescribes, w T ho should endeavour, in the spirit of his 
Lord and Master, to teach and enlighten others, would 
" shake the country for many miles round." Nor is 
this testimony, to the power of truth, an exaggeration. 
Let those who wish w r ell to others, and who have ample 
pecuniary means at their disposal, encourage men and 
women of this stamp to enter on this field of labour, — 
persons, if such can be found, who are willing and 
qualified, and who feel urged by a sense of religious 
duty to undertake the mission. All are not required 
to leave their native homes, and to settle or travel in 
distant lands, where moral cultivation is at a low ebb ; 
but all are bound, by the claims of Christian love, to 
look at moral destitution wherever it exists, and to use 
every means in their power, under the Divine blessing, 
to counteract or remove it. Exertions must be made 
to rescue the land from the degradation of intemperance, 



CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 173 

which is one of its greatest evils ; but we must look 
to the progress of light and knowledge to effect this 
object, rather than to any immediate measures on the 
part of Temperance Societies. If education be encouraged 
by the State, as there is reason to hope it will be ; 
if the Romish missals, and fabulous legends that now 
constitute the principal reading of the few young people 
who are taught in the schools, be dismissed from use, 
and if works of history, of science, and of morals, be 
substituted in their place, and the Holy Scriptures be 
generally distributed and read, a new spirit would be 
awakened in the minds of the rising generation, which 
would gradually diffuse itself throughout the commu- 
nity ; under its influence much moral evil would sub- 
side, and sound views of what it is really the nation s 
interest and duty to do, would speedily prevail. Tem- 
perance Societies might then work effectually, but will 
be powerless for any extensive good, till this better 
day shall dawn. 

The corruptions of the priesthood, to which we have 
so often adverted, are of too formidable a nature to be 
easily overcome. If the priests were banished from the 
island, could such a measure be justified, something as 
bad as popery, or perhaps worse, would probably rise 
to take its place ; and nothing, for a long time at least, 
would be gained to the cause of religion and morality, 
by the exercise of a summary jurisdiction of this sort 
against them. Much may be hoped for from the 
extension of Protestant principles, and from their in- 
creasing influence ; and to these, and to other causes, 
operating religiously, we must look for a reformation 
of character, both in priests and people, rather than 



174 CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 

to the intervention of the civil magistrate. Some 
reformations, however, are needed, which are peculiarly 
within the province of a temporal government, and on 
which it would be wise for the government of Hayti 
immediately to enter, without waiting for time to 
develop those higher views of duty in the minds of the 
people, which must naturally flow from the diffusion 
and reception of religious truth. Improvements in prisons, 
and in prison-discipline, are of this sort ; these might be 
effected speedily, at very little cost, and to great public 
advantage. A better code of criminal jurisprudence, 
and a wiser administration of it, are also urgently 
required ; and the house of representatives, which feels 
the necessity of this change, instead of being rebuked 
by the executive for boldly stating its views, should be 
encouraged to persevere in ifcs laudable course, for the 
public good. The standing army should be immediately 
cut down, not merely for the purpose just alluded to, 
of setting at liberty a fund to promote the cause of 
national education, although this is of paramount im- 
portance, but also to restore many thousands of able- 
bodied men to productive field-labour, who are now 
wasting their time on parade, and who, by their pil- 
fering habits, and immoral manner of living, contribute, 
more than any other class, to the general demoralization. 
Let the army- of Hayti be disbanded, and an active civil 
police force be organized in its stead ; let the criminal 
jurisprudence of the land be reformed, together with its 
prisons and its prison discipline; let every encourage- 
ment be given to the extension of Protestant principles ; 
above all, let a scheme of elementary education be 
devised, which shall be founded on Christian prin- 



CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 175 

ciples, unsectarian in its character, and so comprehen- 
sive as to embrace all the rising generation. Let 
these improvements be set on foot, and these reforms 
be administered, and then, as certainly as effect succeeds 
to cause, the republic of Hayti will be raised from the 
degradation under which it suffers; the moral and poli- 
tical face of the land will brighten ; and the country, 
now pointed at by the proud finger of scorn as un- 
worthy of notice, will assume her proper rank in the 
scale of nations, and compel the governments of Europe 
and America to yield her respect and honour. 



Johnston & Barrett, Printers, 15, Mark I.ane. 



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